Helps-  h  (i^Jyife:ofTfayef 


-m 


Rev  J.  M.-  Manning  B.B, 


LIBRARY 

OK       Till-; 

Theological  Seminary 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

BV  215  .M3  1875 
I!   Manning,  Jacob  M.  1824-1882 
„  Helps  to  a  life  of  prayer 


r/i-^. 


HELPS 


A  LIFE   OF   PRAYER 


BY 


REV.  J.  M.  manni:n^g,  d.  d., 

TASTOK  OF  THE  OLD  SOrTH  CntTECU, 
BOSTOK. 


BOSTON: 

LEE     AND     SHEPARD,    PUBLISHERS. 

NEW  YORK: 

LEE,  SHEPARD,  AND  DILLINGHAM. 

1875. 


Entered,  accordin-,'  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  isr4, 

By  lee  and  shepard, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  "Washington. 


Stereotyped  at  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
19  Spring  Lane. 


PREFACE. 


My  own  study  of  the  subject  of  Prayer,  some 
of  the  results  of  which  are  here  gathered  up, 
has  brought  to  me  a  fuller  experience  of  the 
nearness  and  love  of  God  than  I  once  had ; 
and  my  earnest  wish,  in  offering  this  volume 
to  the  public,  is,  that  others  may  find  the  same 
blessed  experience,  or  have  it  deepened  within 
them  if  it  be  already  theirs. 

J.  M.  M. 

Old  South  Parsonage, 
I^ecember,  1874. 


^^ 


*\      rr%  rr  r^  r\  r    r\  n  r  n  ■'■  T      /J 
'>>^^   JL  XI  XU  U  ii  U  U  A  L  -i-i.  -Li^,// 

CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Nature  of  Prayer 9 

II.  Forms  of  Prayer 34 

III.  The  Objects  of  Prayer 58 

IV.  The  Fruits  of  Prayer 84 

V.  The  Power  of  Prayer 109 

VI.  The  Hour  of  Prayer 134 


:f    PUKTCETOIT 


\THS0L0GIG 
PRAYER. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    NATURE    OF   PRAYER. 

The  word  "  prayer  "  denotes,  in  its  most  gen- 
Generai         eral  senso,  any  form  of  petition  ;    and 

definition  .,  i  £f  i    x  i  •     p      • 

of  the  word  1^  ^^y  ^^  ottered  to  equals  or  mieri- 
"  P'"^y^''-"  ors  no  less  than  to  superiors  ;  not  only 
to  our  Maker,  but  also  to  our  fellow-man.  Yet 
the  devout  Christian  is  not  pleased  to  hear  the 
term  used  in  merely  human  relations;  it  is  a 
consecrated  word,  set  apart  from  secular  to  sa- 
cred uses.  We  do,  in  form  at  least,  admit  a 
kind  of  sovereignty  in  those  to  whom  we  address 
our  prayer.  Ostensibly  we  bow  down  before 
them,  and  lift  up  our  eyes  reverently  unto  them, 
as  those  who   hold  our  destiny  in  their  hand. 

9 


10  PRAYER. 

Such  deference  as  this  towards  any  man,  or 
assembly  of  men,  seems  to  be  inconsistent  with 
the  doctrine  of  human  equahty  ;  it  strikes  the 
thoughtful  mind  as  bordering  on  sacrilege,  as 
coming  very  near  to  idolatrous  worship,  and  it 
is  tolerated  only  as  a  time-honored  way  of  deal- 
ing with  persons  in  authority,  in  which  not  half 
so  much   reverence   is  felt  as   professed. 

Prayer,  then,  in  its  appropriate  use,  is  always 
a   religious   exercise.      It    brin2:s    the 

Eestricted,  °  " 

in  usage,  tu     creaturo   face   to  face   with   the   Crea- 

religioii. 

tor.  While  man  is  speaking  it  is 
God  who  giveth  him  audience ;  the  voice  of 
the  finite  child  commands  the  ear  of  the  infi- 
nite Father. 

But  even  in  this  its  highest  and  most  sacred 

use,  the  word  prayer  may  have  either 
^etitk!n*       a  specific   or   a   general   meaning.     In 

strictness  of  speech,  we  pray  unto  God 
only  as  we  entreat  him  to  bestow  favors  on 
ourselves  or  others ;  the  exclamation  of  the 
Pubhcan  was  strictly  a  prayer.  It  is  said, 
however,  that  the  Pharisee  stood  and  prayed, 
though  he  only  thanked  God  that  he  was  able 


ITS  NATURE.  H 

to  have  a  very  good  opinion  of  himself.     Here, 

then,  the  word   is   used   in   its   broader   sense  ; 

and   in   this    sense    it   is   used   throughout    the 

Scriptures,  denoting   any   form   of  ad- 
More  gen- 
erally any       dress    from    man    to    his    Maker.       Our 

Qod.  ^  Lord  taught  his  disciples  to  pray ;  yet 
the  Lord's  Prayer  embraces  much  be- 
sides the  asking  of  favors  from  God.  It  begins 
with  an  invocation ;  we  first  recognize  the 
relation  in  which  God  stands  to  us,  by  calling 
upon  him  as  our  Father.  We  then  express  hu- 
mility and  reverence  by  representing  him  as  in 
heaven,  while  we  remember  that  we  are  on  the 
earth.  Next  our  souls  pour  themselves  forth 
in  adoration  —  ^'  hallowed  be  thy  name."  From 
this  we  rise  to  a  view  of  the  absolute  dominion 
of  God,  exclaiming,  with  ardent  desire, 

Example  ^         t  •         t  i  mi    i 

of  the  "  thy  knigdom  come,  thy  will  be  done 

priyen  ^^  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  Following 
this  is  the  petition  —  a  prayer  in  the 
strict  and  proper  sense  of  the  word,  included 
within  the  general  address,  which  is  also  called 
a  prayer.  And  even  this  specific  prayer  con- 
tains a  confession  of  sin,  and  the  claiming  of  a 


12  PRAYER. 

certain  worthiness  on  the  part  of  the  suppli- 
ant, which  he  urges  as  a  reason  for  his  own 
forgiveness.  After  these  various  utterances,  we 
still  pray  by  submitting  ourselves  and  all  things 
to  God,  ascribing  unto  him  the  kingdom,  and 
the  power,  and  the  glory. 

From  these  examples  it  appears  that  any  lan- 
guage through  which  we  address  our- 

AU  com-  /^      1  1  1  1 

muning  selvcs  to  God  —  be  that  language  ex- 
ilprayhig.  prcssivo  of  peniteuce,  adoration,  vows, 
or  desire  —  comes  within  the  scrip- 
tural definition  of  prayer.  Talking  or  commun- 
ing with  God  is  the  general  truth  which  the 
inspired  writers  have  always  in  mind  ;  and  so 
solemn  and  overawing  is  God's  presence,  that 
while  we  are  conscious  of  speaking  to  him  our 
thoughts  naturally  take  on  reverent^  lowly,  and 
prayerful  forms. 

The  Scriptures  also  reckon  as  prayer  that 
spirit  of  worship  which  makes  us  love  to  draw 
nigh  to  God.  When  we  are  bidden  to  pray 
without  ceasing,  as  in  Eph.  6:8,  it  cannot  be 
the  outward  act  of  praj^er  which  is  enjoined, 
since  the  command  would  then  be  wholly  out  of 


ITS  NATURE.  13 

our  ability  to  perform.     If  faithful  to  all  other 

duties,  we  can  spend  but  a  small  part  of  each 

day  in  external  acts  of  devotion.     It  is  not  to 

an   outward  exercise,  but  to  an  habit- 

An  habit- 
ual state  of    ual  disposition ;  not  to  audible  prayer, 

the  soul.  Pi«-i  i-i->M-i 

but  to  a  prayerful  spirit,  that  the  Bible 
refers  when  it  tells  us  to  pray  without  ceasing. 
In  this  devoutness  of  the  renewed  soul  we  find 
the  last  and  holiest  meaning  of  the  term  prayer. 
It  is  to  this  inward  flame,  ever  mounting  up  unto 
God,  that  the  apostle  points  when  he  says,  "  pray- 
ing always  with  all  prayer  and  supplication  in 
the  spirit."  By  praying  in  the  spirit  he  evi- 
dently means  to  say  that  avc  must  be  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  order  that  we 
may  rightly  offer  up  our  requests  to  God.  And 
since  the  blessed  Comforter  comes  to  us  in- 
wardly, not  outwardly,  this  phrase,  ^3ra?/i?i^  in 
the  spirit,  also  teaches  us  that  true  prayei' 
never  consists  in  the  external  form,  but  in  the 
desires  and  aspirations  of  the  soul.  Therefore 
it  is  no  periodic  utterances  of  articulate  or 
audible  prayers,  but  the  hidden  life  of  commu- 
nion with  God,  which  the  Scriptures  enjoin.     St. 


14  PRA  YER. 

Paul  may  properly  exhort  us  to  pray  always, 
since  by  prayer  he  means  a  kind  of  divine 
friendship  and  intimacy,  a  walking  and  talk- 
ing in  spirit  with  our  God.  Such  being  the 
nature  and  essence  of  everything  worthy  to 
be  called  prayer,  we  can  readily  see  how  it 
becomes  a  constant  and  life-long  duty,  and  why 
all  men  should  give  it  their  most  earnest  and 
sacred  heed. 

There  is,  then,  such  a  thing  as  secular  prayer, 
but  more  properly  the  word  conveys  a  religious 
idea ;  also,  as  expressive  of  worship  towards 
God,  it  may  be  either  specific  or  general, — 
denoting  simply  requests  made  to  him,  or,  more 
broadly,  an?/  utterance  designed  for  his  ear ; 
and  in  this  divine  relation  the  word  may  denote 
either  the  formal  act  of  prayer,  or  the  un- 
spoken sjoirit  of  devotion.  Of  these  five  dif- 
ferent meanings  which  the  word  may  have, 
the   last    seems    most   important ;    not 

This  in-  . 

Avardiiabit     ouly  bccauso   it   alone   may  be  a  con- 
p'orLnT.         stant    and    indwelling    habit,    but   be- 
cause  it    is    the    fountain    and    inner 
substance  of  the    others.     Prayerfulness    is  the 


ITS  NATURE.  15 

root  and  the  life  of  all  forms  of  prayer.  It 
may  be  called  a  divine  societj^,  for  it  makes 
God  the  daily  companion  of  the  praying  spirit, 
—  he  comes  and  takes  up  his  abode  with  it. 
It  is  an  uninterrupted  intercourse  and  commun- 
ion of  soul.  Whoever  prays  after  this  manner 
dwells  in  God  and  God  in  him,  so  that  it  may 
be  said  of  him,  in  the  strong  words  of  Chrys- 
ostom,  that  his  entire  life  is  an  unbroken 
prayer. 

Let  me  ask  you,  therefore,  to  attend  a  little 
^jjj^tjg  further  to  this  apostolic  definition  of 
involved.  prayer,  that  we  may  not  be  mistaken 
as  to  what  it  is  or  what  it  involves. 

1.  Prayerfulness,  or  praying  in  the  spirit,  pre- 
supposes, /?rsf,  some  degree  of  likeness  to  God 
in  character.  This  inward  life  of  prayer  is 
fellowship  with  God,  and  there  can  be  no  real 
fellowship   between  those  whose   char- 

Must  be  1      11         T       •       M 

moral  like-  actcrs  and  tastes  are  wholly  dissimilar. 
Q^J^j"  °  A   thorough    metaphysician    can   have 

but  little  intellectual  sympathy  with 
one  who  is  given  up  to  po&-tiy.  The  man  of 
retirement    and    thought    is    seldom    congenial 


16  PRA  YER. 

to  the  man  of  affairs.  Their  callings  in  life 
develop  opposite  tastes,  different  social  wants. 
If  the  pastor  of  a  church  is  consecrated  to  liis 
divine  studies,  in  the  midst  of  a  people  whom 
God  has  called  to  the  varied  pursuits  of  this 
life,  they  will  often  find  it  a  little  hard  to  be 
entirely  at  ease  and  free  in  each  other's 

Opposites  1      •  1 

cannot  be  compauy,  howcvcr  great  their  mutual 
ship.  ^^  \oYQi  and  esteem  may  be.  Allowance 
must  be  made  for  the  effect  of  differ- 
ent kinds  of  earthly  discipline,  or  there  can  be 
no  Christian  brotherhood.  Charity,  oftentimes, 
is  but  another  name  for  this  social  hospitality. 
Men  are  like  musical  instruments.  If  two 
violins  have  been  tuned  to  a  different  key,  it 
is  in  vain  that  we  strive  to  pla}'  them  in  har- 
mony;   they  will  give   forth   only  dis- 

Antipa- 

thicsin  cords.  In  the  world  of  matter  there 
are  attractions  and  repulsions ;  from 
which  fact  some  ancient  sages  inferred  that  the 
particles  of  matter  have  active  and  intelligent 
souls,  which  prompt  them  to  seek  out  and  be 
united  with  homogeneous  atoms,  and  to  repel 
their  opposites.     Just  so  is  it  in  things  spiritual. 


ITS  NATURE.  .     17 

In  morals  and  religion,  more  than  anywhere  else^ 
sympathies  and  antipathies  show  themselves. 
Souls  which  have  been  differently  tuned  will  but 
clash  when  we  attempt  to  make  them  move  in 
unison.  What  fellowship  hath  righteousness  with 
unrighteousness  ?  or  what  part  hath  he  that  be- 
lieveth  with  him  that  is  an  infidel  ?  is  the 
argument  in  Corinthians.  There  can  be  no 
mutual  confidence  or  intimacy  between  two 
persons,  one  of  whom  is  goverfened  by 

Moral  dif-  , 

ferences        conscicnce  and  the  other  by  semshness. 


irrecon- 


cilable. ^^  is  those  of  like  character,  and  that, 

too,  a  holy  and  upright  character,  who 
become  true  friends,  and  are  gradually  drawn 
into  the  bonds  of  social  endearment.  Neither 
with  the  good  nor  among  themselves  can  the 
evil  be  long  at  peace.  Every  unrenewed  soul 
is  itself  the  field  of  a  perpetual  war.  But 
Christians  would,  without  any  divine  command 
to  that  effect,  be  drawn  together  into  perma- 
nent   fellowship.       The     church    rests 

A  natural 

law  makes      upon  a  law  01   uaturc.     ihe    renewed 
soul   obeys    its   own    impulse,  as  well 
as   the   word   of  God,  when    it   seeks  member- 
2 


18  PRAYER. 

ship  in  the  church.  So  far  as  the  spirit  of  glory 
and  of  God  rests  on  them,  Christians  have  a 
strong  propensity  to  this  fellowship  one  with 
another,  under  the  covenants.  It  is  a  witness 
that. we  have  passed  from  death  unto  life,  that 
we  have  this  drawing  of  soul  towards  all 
Christians. 

And  now,  if  an  immoral  person  can  have  no 
oneness  of  spirit  with  a  good  man,  how  much 
more  true  must  it  be  that  he  can  have  no  com- 
munion with  God !  Our  God  is  perfect  in  holi- 
ness ;  he  cannot  look  on  sin,  save  with  infinite 
abhorrence  ;  he  turns  away,  with  immeasurable 
loathing,  from  every  impure  act  or  desire.  We 
cannot  pray  in  spirit  unto  such  a  God,  while 
we   have   no    spiritual   likeness   to   him.     What 

fellowship  hath  light  with  darkness  ? 
else  so  op-  what  coucord  is  there  between  Christ 
as  God!' ^'°     and  Belial?   what  agreement  liath  the 

temple  of  God  with  idols  ?  Our  God 
shows  great  and  tender  love  for  us  when  he 
says.  '^  Be  ye  holy.''  The  argument  is,  '^  for  I 
am  holy."  That  is  to  say,  communion  with  me 
is   the    crowning   blessing   of  your   life  ;   but  I 


ITS  NATURE.  19 

am  holy;  therefore  you  must  be  holy  in  order 
to  that  communion.  Our  Saviour  expresses  the 
same  truth  in  the  sixth  beatitude :  ^'  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God." 
God  is  pure ;  therefore  we  must  be  pure,  or  no 
vision  of  his  radiant  person  can  ever  be  vouch- 
safed us.  The  character  he  bids  us  build  up 
in  ourselves  is  indispensable  to  any  sweet  in- 
tercourse with  him.  That  soul  whose  true 
life   is   not  a  partaking  of  the  life    of 

Only  the  r^      -,  n  n  i  • 

holy  can        God,  may  utter  forms  of  prayer,  but  it 

have  union  .  . ,  t       j.       i  i 

with  God.  cannot  pray  ;  its  suppliant  phrases,  and 
the  glowing  rhapsodies  with  which  it 
may  charm  human  ears,  do  not  enter  into  the 
ear  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth.  There  is  no 
child's  cry  in  them,  and  hence  they  meet  no 
answering  throb  in  the  Father's  heart. 

But  am   I   not   like    God  ?    asks   the   natural, 

unrenewed  man,  who  thinks  that  it  is 

of  nature       praying    to    say   prayers.      Yes,    God 

notenoiigr..     j^^^^  ^g  jj^  j^'g  \^^^gQ  j  and  uo  amouut 

of  sinning  can  quite  efface  that  image  from  our 
nature.  But  it  is  only  a  likeness  in  our  nature, 
not  in  our  character  —  an.  essential,  not  a  moral 


20  PR  A  YER. 

resemblance.  It  is  involuntary  ;  something,  that 
is,  which  we  cannot  help  having ;  it  exists 
while  we  are  unconscious  of  it;  nor  can  it  be 
subjected  to  the  dominion  of  our  will.  Plainly, 
then,  this  likeness  to  God  in  our  nature  is  not 
that  agreement  with  him  which  is  presupposed 
in  the  offering  of  acceptable  prayer.  It  is 
simply  a  basis,  on  which  we  are  to  rear 

A  godly 

character  up  a  lioly  cliaractcr  for  ourselves  ;  and 
this  holy  character  is  what  brings  us 
into  real  and  blessed  intercourse  with  God. 
There  may  l)e  a  kind  of  intellectual  coming 
to  him,  and  our  natural  feelings  may  gush 
forth  after  him,  while  there  is  no  true  holiness 
of  soul ;  it  does  not  constitute  that  free  consent 
by  which  the  pure  spirit  rests  in  God.  There  is 
no  blending  of  the  human  will  with  the  divine,  no 
trustfulness,  no  sweet  self-surrender,  no  giving 
up  to  the  father  by  the  child.  Many  persons 
are  awed  by  the  attributes  of  God ;  they  love 
to  be  bathed  in  the  ocean  of  his  greatness, 
and  to  feel  his  majesty  creeping  like  a  charmed 
shadow  upon  them.  The  glory  of  his  creation, 
and  the  grandeur  of  his  government,  make  them 


ITS  NATURE.  21 

tremble   and   adore  ;    and  they  speak  sublimely 
of  his    goings    forth  to   work   wonders 

Intellect- 
ual excite-      m  heaven  above  and  the  earth  beneath. 

"oTthe^         So  strong  is  this  response  in  our  nature 

spirit  of  ^Q  ^Y\Q  divine  s^lories,  that  we  may  mis- 
prayer.  <='  *' 

take  it  for  genuine  adoration  of  God. 
The  poet  often  thinks  that  his  mental  uplifting 
and  wondering  are  a  real  communion  with  God. 
He  writes  lofty  hymns  of  praise,  which  go  down 
through  the  ages  as  the  outflo wings  of  a  Chris- 
tian spirit ;  yet  in  it  all  there  may  be  no  loving 
consent  and  agreement  of  his  will  with  the  will 
of  the  Most  High.  He  can  turn  away  from 
his   raptures   about   God,  to   be  affected  in  the 

same    manner    by    his    contemplations 

A  prayerful 

spirit  dif-  amid  the  beauties  and  sublimities  of 
poetical  °  "the  material  world.  It  is  not  the 
feeling.  holiucss     of    God    that     charms     him^ 

and  draws  him  up  into  an  ecstasy ;  he  loves 
that  great  Being  only  as  he  loves  the  cataract, 
the  Alpine  scene,  the  spangled  heavens,  or 
the  ocean  storm.  He  takes  the  poet's  pleasure 
in  what  is  grand,  or  radiant,  or  majestic,  or 
awful,  in  God  and  his  ways  ;  but  he  does  not 


22  PRA  YER. 

feel  the  lowly  joy  of  the  Christian,  who  is  drawn 
to  God  most  of  all  by  his  holy  and  compassion- 
ate character.  It  is  this  moral  likeness  to  God, 
built  up  by  ourselves  under  the  movings  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  upon  that  natural  likeness  in 
which  man  was  created,  that  renders  us  in  the 
truest  sense  like  our  God.  Nothing  else,  how- 
ever pleasing  or  admirable  it  may  be,  can 
fit   us   for   communion  with   him  ;    and 

None  but  ...  i         i    •         n     i        p 

thegodiy  hence  it  is  involved  in  all  the  lorms  oi 
true  prayer,  as  it  is  the  substance  and 
soul  of  a  prayerful  spirit.  We  can  pour  out 
our  souls  to  God  in  prayer,  and  lean  upon  his 
goodness  with  a  constant  and  joyous  trust,  only 
as  we  like  him,  —  breathing  his  spirit  of  holi- 
ness, and  filling  all  our  purposes  and  acts  with 
his  own  perfect  love. 

2.    A  second  element,  which  enters  into  the 
very  idea  and  essence  of  a  prayerful 

God  is  real  ....  ,  .  p    /n      i 

to  the  soul      spirit,  is  the  clear  apprehension  01  God 

while  it  .1  111 

prays.  ^^   prcscut   and   near   to   the    praying 

soul.     God  is  always  with  us,  but  we 

are  apt  to  forget  this  solemn  truth.     He  listens 

to  our  idle  words,  he  sees  our  conduct,  he  knows 


ITS  NATURE.  23 


our  thoughts.  But  this  nearness  and  oversight 
are  not  always  kept  in  mind  by  us.  We  go 
on  our  several  ways  as  if  no  divine  eye  were 
looking.  We  hide  iniquity  in  our  hearts,  seeming 
not  to  remember  that  even  they  are  naked  and 
open  to  Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do.  This 
delusion  we  must  overcome  before  we  can  truly 
pray.  Our  souls  can  commune  with  God  only 
as  their  apprehension  of  him  as  a  God  at  hand, 
and  not  afar  off,  is  clear.  That  is  not  a  prayer  to 
God  which  we  offer  with  no  faith  that  it  enters 
into  his  ear.  How  absurd  it  would  be  in  us  to 
call  out  for  help  to  a  person  on  the  other  side  of 
the  globe  !  But  we  ask  God  for  help  every  day. 
We    speak   to  him  aloud   and  in  whis- 

Cannot 

address  the  pcrs,  and  WO  lilt  up  our  hearts  to  him 
11^1/^  silently  for  his  blessing;  nor  do  we 
regard  this  speaking  to  him  as  at  all 
absurd.  Do  we  not,  therefore,  in  form  at  least, 
assent  to  the  truth  that  God  is  with  us,  giving 
us  audience  when  we  come  before  him  in 
prayer  ?  And  what  we  take  for  granted  in 
form,  is  what  there  must  indeed  be  in  our  souls, 
or   our   utterance    is   not   praying.     '^  Give   ear. 


24  PRA  YER. 

0  Shepherd  of  Israel,"  say  ^v^e,  as  we  stand 
in  that  august  presence.  But  if  our  hearts 
feel  not  what  our  lips  speak,  it  is  only  a  solemn 
sound  on  a  thoughtless  tongue.  ^-  We  cannot 
escape  from  thy  presence,  nor  go  from  thy 
Spirit,"  is  the  uplifted  voice  of  the  congre- 
gation ;  but  do  we,  in  our  public  wor- 

\Yhat  our 

prayers  be-     ship,    apprehend    tlie    truth   thus    con- 

h.ck  the         fessed  ?      If    not,    there    is   no    seeing 
Virion  of         ^f     (.^^     ^1^^     g^^j^^g     ^^Q^g     ^g     ^^^ 

God. 

bends  down  to  our  cr}^ ;  and  hence 
there  can  be  no  fellowship  Avith  him,  no  min- 
gling of  our  spirit  with  his,  nothing  which 
answers  to  the  essential  idea  of  prayer.  He 
that  Cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  God  is, 
and  that  he  rewards  those  who  diligently  seek 
him.  How  many  times  we  utter  the  words  of 
prayer  when  there  is  no  such  object  of  faith 
before  us !  We  go  into  our  closet  and  shut 
the  door  upon  the  world,  but  God  is  not  with 
us  in  our  room.  We  try  to  recall  our  mercies 
and  our  sins,  but  they  appear  before  us  only  in 
a  confused  and  partial  manner.  Neither  grati- 
tude nor  penitence    comes  at  our  bidding.     If 


ITS  NATURE.  25 

we  take  the  attitude  of  petition,  still  the  foun- 
tains of  feeling  are  not  unloosed.     It  is  a  heart- 
less service,  an  irksome    duty.     Christ 

Such  . 

prayers  cometli  uot  lu  through  the  door  to 
^„^  '^  feed  and  refresh  our  souls.  On  the 
contrary,  if  we  hear  the  voice  of  Christ 
as .  he  stands  without  and  knocks,  and  admit 
him  to  actual  communion  with  our  spirit,  how 
we  are  lifted  up,  calmed  and  refreshed  by  the 
hour  of  prayer !  Thus  only  do  we  really  begin 
to  pray,  and  to  feel  in  ourselves  the  water  which 
Christ  gives  springing  up  into  everlasting  life. 
It  is  idle  in  us  to  spread  forth  our  hands  in 
prayer  while  we  have  no  sense  of  a  present 
Father.  We  may  look  towards  heaven ;  but 
"  I  will  not  hear  you,"  saith  the  Lord  ;  "•  yea, 
when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  will  not  hear." 
There  may  be  reverence  of  manner,  subdued 
tones  of  voice,  much  appropriate  and  touching 
expression.  Human  feelings  may  rise  uj)  to- 
gether, and  all  hearts  be  borne  away  on  one 
wave  of  sympathy ;  but  there  is  no  coming 
of  the  soul  into  God's  embrace,  where  alone 
the   answer   of    peace    can   be    received.     This 


26  PJ^A  YER. 

flow  of  the  natural   feelings  subsides,   and   the 

worshipper   grows    still   and   calm   in   spirit,  as 

he  really  prays.     How  can  our  souls  be 

Tho  calm  •  i         i  m  i 

joy  or"  agitated  while   they  are    conscious   oi 

prayer.  leaning  on  Him  who  hushes  the  storm  ? 

"  I  have  set  the  Lord  on  my  right  hand ;  there- 
fore will  I  never  be  moved/'  said  the  Psalmist. 
This  quietness  of  the  praying  heart  is  not 
stoicism  ;  it  is  the  peace  of  God.  Like  Jacob 
of  old,  we  may  be  driven  away  from  our  home, 
knowing  that  an  enemy  seeks  our  life.  We  may 
lie  down  as  he  did  —  wanderers,  sheltered  only 
by  the  firmanent,  making  a  stone  our  pilloAv,  the 
cold  earth  a  bed  to  us  in  our  weariness  ;  but 
when  we  remember  in  whose  hand  we  are, 
and  turn  over  in  our  mind  the  truth  of 

It  makes 

the  desert  his  presoncc,  till  he  stands  out  to  our 
faith  in  the  glory  and  blessedness  of 
his  person,  the  bended  sky  becomes  to  us 
the  canopy  of  the  great  white  throne,  and  its 
hosts  of  stars  the  crowns  which  are  cast  at 
Christ's  feet.  Joining  in  the  worship  of  the 
hundred  and  forty-four  thousand,  we  breathe 
our   spirit   forth   with    them   in  prayer   to  Him 


ITS  NATURE.  27 

that  sitteth  on  the  throne.  The  answers  of 
God,  coming  down  to  us  while  our  requests 
rise  to  him,  are  like  the  angels  on  the  ancient 
ladder  ascending  and  descending ;  communion 
with  the  Father  of  our  spirits  makes  the  des- 
ert a  Bethel,  and  the  place  of  danger  and 
gloom  is  the  gate  of  heaven.  We  may,  in 
public  or  among  our  friends,  offer  prayers 
when  we  have  no  clear  recognition  of  a  pres- 
ent and  listening  God.  We  may  speak  out  our 
wants  into  vacancy,  thinking  only  of  the  rhe- 
torical beauty  of  our  sentences,  or  the  logical 
arrangement  of  our  thoughts,  or  whether  those 
who  join  with  us  are  pleased  with  what  we  say  ; 
but  our  souls  will  sink  down  unrefreshed  after 
the  exercise  :  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  come 
in  faith  to  Him  who  hears  prayer,  —  if  we 
forget  all  else  in  the  eagerness  of  our  souls  to 
be  poured  out  into  his  open  heart,  —  it 
utterance  mattcrs  not  liow  confuscd,  or  how  brief, 
t^e  yearn-  ^r  liow  stammcriug  our  utterance  may 
ing  heart.       -j^^ .    -^^  ^.'jj  ^.-g^  ^^'^j^   acceptaucc    iuto 

the  ear  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and  we  shall  receive 
of  his  own  joy  till  our  joy  is  full.     It  was  in  vain 


28  PI^A  yER. 

that  the  disciples  continued  toiling  and  rowing 
while  they  forgot  Him  who  lay  asleep  in  the 
hinder  part  of  the  ship.  But  when  they  re- 
membered that  he  was  with  them,  and  called  out 
for  help  to  him  with  a  strong  and  yearning  cry, 
the  Lord  of  nature  arose  and  rebuked  the  wind, 
the  majesty  of  his  word  hushing  the  storm 
and  subduing  the  waves  to  an  unAVonted  calm. 
3.  One  other  element  essential  to  the  idea  of 
true  prayer  is  a  feeling  of  dependence  on  God. 
It  is  not  enough  that  our  character 
ofdepen-  sliould  bc  like  his,  and  that  we  should 
semhiHo  know  him  as  present  and  listening 
prayer.  while  WB  pray  ;  we  must  also  feel  that 
he  is  immeasurably  greater  than  we,  and  that 
the  sources  of  our  being  are  in  him.  Every  one 
grants  that  such  a  feeling  is  involved  in  all 
honest  prayer.  We  never  heartily  ask  another 
to  bestow  on  us  what  we  believe  that  our 
own  efforts  must  secure.  Herein  is  the  lack 
which  spoils  very  many  of  our  prayers ;  wc 
deny  in  our  heart  what  we  say  with  our 
tongue.  There  is  a  form,  but  while  offering  it 
we    distrust   its   power.     The    confesson  of  de- 


ITS  NATURE.  29 

pendence  flows  on   while   inwardly  there   is  no 

real  trust.     Our  reliance  is  upon  second  causes, 

rather  than  the  great  First  Cause.    These  second 

causes  are  God's  instruments ;  through 

God  often 

hidden  by       them  he  works  to  bless  us.     They  are 
causes.  visible  and  tangible,  and  we  are  in  the 

midst  of  them  every  day ;  while  he 
himself  is  impalpable,  unseen  save  by  the  eye 
of  faith.  The  spring  comes  to  us  fresh  and 
smiling,  and  we  see  the  working  of  natural 
law  in  the  renewing  of  the  earth's  face  ;  but 
we  do  not  hear  the  divine  voice  which  recalls 
the  sun  from  his  winter  journey.  We  feel 
the  solar  rays,  but  not  Him  who  gives  them 
their  heat  —  who  breathes  his  own  energy  into 
them  that  they  may  melt  the  cheerless  covering 
of  nature.  Our  God,  whom  we  hear  not,  and 
whose  glory  it  is  to  conceal  a  thing,  takes  hold 
of  these  created  agents,  and  through  them  un- 
looses, with  his  own  hand,  the  ice-bound  waters ; 
he  makes  soft  the  earth  with  showers, 
and  causes  the  grass  to  grow  on  the 
mountains,  and  the  valleys  to  be  cov- 
ered over  with  corn.     So  is  it  in  all  the 


'   # 


"Natural 
forces  noth- 
ing without 
God. 


30  PRA  YER, 

processes  of  nature  ;  so  is  it  in  the  small  events 
which  make  up  the  providential  allotments  of 
each  hour.  But  we  are  apt  to  be  absorbed  in 
what  appears  outwardly,  to  the  exclusion  of 
Him  who  works  within  all  objects,  processes, 
or  events.  That  omnipotent  hand  which  has 
hold  of  the  whole  system  of  natural  appliances 
is  hidden  from  our  sight :  and  we  stand  in  the 
midst  of  the  passive  vehicles  of  God's  love, 
saying  one  to  another,  "  These  be  thy  gods, 
0  Israel."  Thus  it  is  that  many  persons  come 
to  worship  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator. 
The  universal  frame  of  nature  is  their  God. 
They  worship  that  which  were  a  dead  and 
motionless  structure  but  for  Him  who  is  won- 
derful in  working ;  for  as  the  body  without 
the  spirit  is  dead,  so  nature  without  God  is 
lifeless  and  unmeaning.  This  naturalism,  of 
which  some  about  us  are  making  their  boast, 
puts  a  great  gulf  between  man  and  God ;  be- 
tween the  heavens  and  Him  whose 
worship  a  glory  the  heavens  declare.  It  knows 
terfir""  nothing  of  a  supreme  Father;  does 
not  deign   even  to  ask  whether   there 


ITS  NATURE.  31 

be  any  God ;  locates  human  wisdom  in  the 
study  of  nature,  and  all  happiness  in  depen- 
dence on  nature's  laws.  The  friends  of  this 
philosophy,  as  in  simple  consistency  they  must, 
deny  that  there  is  any  power  in  prayer.  They 
have  reared  up  their  system  to  an  imposing 
height,  and  fitly  framed  it  together  in  all  its 
parts ;  but  they  confess  that  they  know  not 
on  what  it  stands.  There  is  no  recognition 
of  the  hand  which  holds  the  wondrous  fabric 
of  nature  in  its  grasp. 

Now,  if  we  fall  under  the  power  of  this  earthly- 
mindedness,  and  come  to  regard  all  our  bless- 
ings as  the  fruit  of  our  own  sagacious  use 
of  natural  forces,  —  if  our  sweet  slumber,  and 
the  enlivening  air,  our  daily  bread,  our  friend- 
ships, the  riches  of  this  life,  and  our  spiritual 
favors,  —  seem  to  us  not  to  come  from  God,  but 
from  agents  and  influences  which  we  may. ^con- 
trol, we  cannot  offer  up  our  prayers 
conscious  and  thanksgivings  to  God  for  all  these 
thich"God  mercies.  We  lack  that  spirit  of  a  child 
only  can        whicli  is  2:reat  in  the  kino-dom  of  heav- 

supply.  o  o 

en.      The   humble    Christian   does   not 


32  PRAYER. 

despise  the  means  appointed  of  God  for  securing 
blessings  to  men  ;  but  he  does  look  beyond  these 
means  always,  not  suffering  them  to  obscure  his 
view  of  the  supreme  and  constant  love  of  his 
heavenly  Father.  Nothing  can  separate  between 
us  and  him  so  long  as  we  have  in  us  the  essence 
and  substance  of  a  praying  spirit.  Our  soul 
stands  related  to  God  as  a  beam  of  light  to  the 
sun.  Though  it  warm  the  earth  by  its  low- 
descending  touch,  yet  it  is  ever  mounting  up 
into  its  great  fountain.  The  human  and  divine 
meet  and  mingle.  They  throb  with  a  single  life 
—  the  life  of  holiness  and  love,  whose  centre 
is  God.  Their  intercourse  is  unobstructed  ;  and 
while  the  spirit  of  the  Father  is  gushing  down- 
ward in  heavenly  benedictions,  the  spirit  of  the 
child  is  ever  rising  upward  into  his  bosom  in 
trustful  and  adoring  prayer. 

Christian,  are  you  ever  dissatisfied  with  your 
prayers?  0,  let  not  that  regret  be  for  the 
reason  that  your  prayers  have  been  imperfect 
in  form ;  for  the  reason  that  you  have  failed 
to  edify  a  human  auditory,  or  have  used  broken 
words  or  sentences  which  can   lay  no   claim  to 


ITS  NATURE.  33 

elegance,  comprehensiveness  of  thought,  or  a 
happy  interweaving  of  incidents  and  inspired 
texts.  Let  it  be  the  occasion  of  your  sorrow, 
rather,  if  you  have  lacked  the  essential  elements 
of  a  prayerful  spirit ;  if  you  have  not  any  moral 
likeness  to  Him  who  is  holy,  and  benevolent, 
and  merciful ;  if  you  fail  to  apprehend  God  as 
near   and   listening   to   you  while  you 

What  we 

should  most  pray ;  if  you  find  it  hard  to  look  through 
our  pray-  ^^^  crcatcd  causos  to  Him  who  is  the 
^"'  Hope  and  the  Helper  of  the  children  of 

men.  If  you  are  destitute  of  this  inward  spirit 
of  prayer,  your  most  graceful  form  of  devo- 
tion is  but  as  the  marble  statue  of  an  angel, 
cold  and  motionless ;  but  if  your  soul  is  in 
fellowship  with  God  after  the  manner  I  have 
here  sought  to  impress,  even  the  rudest 
spirit  will       form  of  speech  shall  be  a  living  seraph, 

make  the  i  •  j     r  xr 

form.  bearmg    you    away  upward   irom   the 

care   and  turmoil  of  this  world,  to  be 
rested   and  refreshed  in  the  arms  of  that  love 
which  is  from  everlasting  to  everlasting. 
3 


34  PRA  YER, 


CHAPTER    II. 


FORMS    OF    PRAYER. 


We  love  to  give  expression  to  our  strong  feel- 
ings and  thoughts.  Whatever  may^the  mood  or 
sentiment  swelling  within  our  mind,  we  seek  to 
utter  it  in  words  which  shall  return  it  to  us 
audibly  through  the  ear,  or  we  strive  to  embody 
it  in  artistic  forms  and  colors,  which  give  it  back 
through  the  ministry  of  the  eye.  This  embody- 
ing of  our  inward  states  of  soul  makes  them 
real  and  impressive  to  us.  They  are  thereby 
made  to  stand  out  vividly  to  our  memory  and 
in  our  consciousness.  Our  emotions  are  greatly 
increased,  both  in  fullness  and  power,  by  these 
outward  embodiments ;  they  speak  back  to  the 
soul  with  a  marvellous  sympathy ;  they  re-echo 
to  it  its  deepest  and  most  sacred  self-commun- 
ings.     RafFaelle    labored   to    express    his   dream 


ITS  FORMS.  35 

of  beauty ;   his  nature  demanded  it  of  him ;   he 

could  not  help  being  the  great  artist  that  he  was. 

Love  of  scientific  truth  was  a  passion 

Mental  ^ 

states  seek     in  Galilco,  and   it  was  impossible    for 

a  body.  •  i  i 

mm  not  to  utter  that  passion;  though 
the  terrors  of  the  Inquisition  hung  over  him, 
they  failed  to  keep  him  silent.  It  is  a  common 
remark  that,  while  many  men  have  been  able 
to  wute  no  book,  few  men  have  been  able  to 
write  only  one  book.  The  more  one  publishes 
his  thoughts,  the  stronger  is  the  impulse  to  keep 
on  publishing  them.  The  expression  given  to 
a  single  thought  reacts  on  the  mind  to  awaken 
other  thoughts.  The  longer  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel  continues  to  preach,  the  harder  is  it  for 
him  to  cease  from  preaching.  The  more  Luther 
meditated,  the  more  urgent  were  his  thoughts 
to  be  spoken ;  and  therefore  he  could  not  keep 
still  before  the  Imperial  Diet,  though  he  took  his 
life  in  his  hand.  Paul  longed  to  preach  Christ : 
it  was  his  one  burning  and  soul-filling  desire ; 
and  therefore  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  be 
silent.  "  Necessity  is  laid  upon  me ;  yea,  woe 
is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel,"  he  exclaims. 


36  PRA  YER. 

When  Jesus  rode  in  triumph  into  Jerusalem,  the 
multitude,  being  full  of  a  grateful  joy,  praised 
God,  saying,  "  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  It  was  in  vain  that  the 
Pharisees  rebuked  the  people.  The  very  stones 
would  have  cried  out  had  man  kept  silent  in 
such  an  hour.  Trying  to  stay  that  gush  of  joy 
was  like  commanding  a  river  to  flow  upward  to 
its  source.  The  authors  of  the  Psalms  were  men 
of  prayer ;  David  especially  lived  a  life  of  com- 
munion with  God,  and  hence  almost  all  his 
writings  are  prayers  —  external  forms 
forms  of        and  embodiments  of  this  inward  habit. 

prayer. 

The  spirit  of  prayer  in  him  did  not 
need  to  be  goaded  to  an  expression  of  itself;  it 
flowed  out  spontaneously  and  irresistibly.  If 
he  strove  to  be  silent  he  was  burdened  with 
longing ;  his  bones  wasted  away  under  the  re- 
straint thus  laid  on  him. 

Perhaps  no  brighter  instance  of  the  impulse 
The  story  of  ^  praycrful  spirit  to  seek  expres- 
ofDaniei.       ^-^^^  ^^^  y^^  fouud  than    is  brought  to 

our  notice  in  the  story  of  Daniel.     By  the  con- 
trivance of  certain  envious  courtiers  a  decree 


ITS  FORMS.  37 

had  been  issued,  having  special  reference  to 
this  godly  captive,  ordering  that  prayer  should 
be  made  to  no  being  but  Darius  in  his  kingdom. 
Should  any  one  be  detected  breaking  this  de- 
cree, he  was  to  be  thrown  to  the  lions  —  the 
most  frightful  and  ignominious  of  punishments. 
Daniel  might  have  prayed  secretly  and  inaudibly 
without  being  found  out;  but  this  was  not  his 
custom,  nor  did  it  agree  with  his  convictions  of 
duty.  He  could  show  a  nobler  trust  in  God, 
and  more  fully  unburden  his  heart  by  speaking 
audibly;  nor  might  he  hope  that  his  prayer 
would  enter  into  the  divine  ear  if  he  allowed 
himself  to  be  controlled  by  any  fear  of  man. 
Therefore,  although  he  knew  that  the  writing 
was  signed,  —  his  death-warrant  if  he  persisted 
in  praying,  —  he  went  into  his  house,  boldly 
opened  the  windows,  kneeled  upon  his  knees 
three  times  a  day,  and  prayed  and  gave  thanks 
to  God  as  aforetime. 

From  the  case  of  Daniel,  then,  and  from  the 
other  examples  and  illustrations  just  given,  we 
infer  that  forms  of  prayer  are  a  necessity  to  the 
praying   soul.     That   soul   must  speak  forth  its 


38  PRA  YER. 

inward  state  —  an  inward  state  which  consists 
in  likeness  of  character  to  God,  a  clear  appre- 
hension of  the  presence  of  God,  and  a  sense  of 
loving  dependence  on  God.^-  The  nature  of  a 
prayerful  spirit,  as  thus  briefly  defined,  indi- 
cates in  what  ways  and  forms  it  may  most 
properly    indulge    the    impulse    which 

How  to 

determine  it  fcels  to  scck  outward  cxpression. 
forms  of  Bearing  in  mind  the  universal  law  of 
^^^^^^'  speech,  that  it  should  correspond  to 
the  feeling  or  thought  which  it  embodies,  we 
are  prepared  to  consider  some  of  the  methods 
by  which  the  praying  soul  may  give  utterance 
to  its  longings. 

1.    The  first  and  most  natural  way  in  which  a 

prayerful    spirit    utters   itself,   especially   if  its 

burden  be  very  great  and  urgent,  is  by  ejacu- 

latory  prayer.     This  form  of  prayer  has 

Ejacula- 

tory  some  peculiar  advantages ;   it  may  be 

used  in  the  midst  of  peril  and  confu- 
sion. It  is  a  momentary  act.  In  such  utterances 
the  hard-pressed  soul  gathers  itself  into  a  short, 
sharp    cry,    and    so    is    hurled,    as    by   an  in- 

*  See  previous  chapter. 


ITS  FORMS.  39 

stantaneous  impulse,  into  the  arms  of  its  God. 
This  form  of  prayer,  though  so  befitting  the 
sudden  exigencies  of  our  lives,  is  susceptible 
of  many  perversions  and  of  very  great  abuse. 
Those  who  practise  it  too  freely  may  fall  into 
the  habit  of  irreverent  and  profane  exclamations 
before  they  are  aware.  These  pious  ejaculations 
are  suited  only  to  a  prayerful  spirit ;  and  if  ut- 
tered when  no  heavy  burden  is  crushing  the  soul 
down,  they  are  too  intense  to  be  true.  Yet  how 
common  are  these  exclamations,  even  among 
ungodly  men  !  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  our  most 
serious  study  that  what  we  call  profane  language 
grows  out  of  the  same  want  in  human  nature  as 
Abuse  of  "the  habit  of  prayer  ;  the  blasphemies  of 
this  form.  gi^iniei  and  the  prayers  of  David  have 
but  one  natural  root.  There  is  a  feeling  of  de- 
pendence on  God  planted  in  all  human  hearts ; 
and  when  that  feeling  is  suddenly  aroused  in  any 
one,  his  first  impulse  is  to  call  on  the  name  of 
God.  With  the  irreligious  person  as  with  the 
religious,  this  calling  upon  God  may  grow  to  be  a 
habit ;  and  so,  whatever  the  passion  which  moves 
him, —  though   a  storm  of  anger,  as  it  is  most 


40  PRA  YER. 

likely  to  be,  —  he  utters  it  in  words  sacred  to 
prayer.  Hence  the  profaneness,  the  sacrilege 
which  shocks  our  souls.  He  acts  under  the 
natural  impulse  of  a  wicked  heart ;  there  are  in 
him  none  of  the  elements  of  character  and  feeling 
which  all  true  prayer  involves.  He  makes  the 
channel  of  divine  communion  a  vehicle  for 
his  earthly  passion;  it  is  as  though  the  Sab- 
bath were  changed  to  a  holiday,  or  the  tem- 
ple of  God  were  used  for  a  playhouse.  His 
language  might  be  prayer  if  it  came  from  a 
heart  right  with  God ;  but  falling  as  it  does 
from  sinful  lips,  the  stain  of  blasphemy  is  upon 
it.  Do  not  fail  to  mark  the  fact  here  brought 
out,  dear  reader,  if  you  are  ever  tempted  to 
the  careless  use  of  words  and  phrases  which 
are    sacred.      Your    evil    habit   proves 

Debases 

what  is  best  to  you  that  you  have  an  instinctive 
feeling  of  dependence  on  God.  It  is 
also  your  noblest  feeling,  since  by  it  you  come 
into  communion  with  God  :  what  shame  and  re- 
morse therefore  should  fill  you  if  you  have  made 
this  high  capacity  do  the  work  of  your  worst 
and  lowest  impulses ! 


ITS  FORMS.  41 

No  one  should  be  so  bold  as  to  use  this  form 
of  prayer  who  is  not  sure  that  he  has  the  love 
of  God  in  his  heart;  nor  he  even,  save  when, 
with  a  spirit  which  can  say,  '^  Thy  will  be  done," 
he  leaps  upward,  out  of  the  reach  of  some  pur- 
suing terror,  to  embrace  the  knees  of  the  Eter- 
nal King  who  alone  can  deliver  him.  Whoever 
hurls  forth  these  emotional  phrases  without  any 
sense  of  the  divine  presence,  and  of  his  own 
utter  dependence  on  God,  does  not  pray ;  he 
simply  uses  vain  repetitions,  such  as  our  Sa- 
viour warns  us  against.     Prayerful  ejac- 

When 

ejacuiatory  ulations  are  fit  only  for  the  soul  which 
proper.^  ^'^^  somo  mighty  emotion  has  heaved  up 
and  cast  at  the  very  footstool  of  God. 
It  is  they  that  are  hunted  for  their  lives  who 
may  venture  to  cry  out  with  David,  "  Aioake  for 
me,  0  Lord."  There  was  no  blasphemy  in  the 
tongue  of  the  publican;  for  he  smote  on  his 
breast  in  guilty  grief,  and  out  of  a  heart  torn 
by  remorse,  cried,  "  God  be  merciful."  '*'  My 
God,  art  thou  dead?"  was  the  wild  cry  of  Lu- 
ther's heart  once,  as  he  lost  the  sense  of  God's 
presence   in  the   midst   of  his   enemies.      Such 


42  PJ^A  YER. 

expressions  as  these  are  not  the  vehicles  to 
which  the  praying  soul  resorts  in  its  calm  and 
unimpassioned  hours ;  it  chooses  gentler  wings 
on  which  its  quiet  thoughts  may  soar.  But 
when  these  intense  words  burst  like  red-hot 
balls  out  of  hearts  rent  by  the  tumult  of  an- 
guish and  despair,  then  we  may  believe  that 
they  are  true  to  the  inner  yearnings  of  God's 
struggling  child,  and  that  they  are  not  more 
swift  to  reach  his  throne  than  are  his  fatherly 
compassions  to  fly  downward  for  our  relief. 

2.  But  these  sudden  bursts  of  emotion  do  not 
realize  the  idea  of  communion  with  God.  They 
are  only  momentary  infoldings  of  God's  love. 
They  do  not  satisfy  the  praying  soul,  which 
longs  for  quiet  retreats,  where  it  may  nestle 
in  the  everlasting  arms.  Hence  the  habit  of 
Secret  secret    prayer.      A    truly     devotional 

prayer.  frame    will   take    this    form    as    natu- 

rally as  a  tree  sends  out  its  roots  by  the  river. 
Secret  prayer  has  ever  been  a  delight  to  holy 
men.  Every  day  has  brought  them  to  its  blessed 
observance,  and  they  have  come  from  it  with 
radiant  faces.     It  is  true  that  many  professing 


ITS  FORMS.  43 

Christians  have  no  closet,  but  such  are  not  the 
victorious  and  rejoicing  children  of  God.  It  is 
the  unquickened,  earth-bound  soul  to  which  this 
frequent  retirement  is  a  drudgery  and  form.  He 
goes  into  the  secret  place  having  no  lively  fel- 
lowship with  Christ.  He  does  not  walk  and  talk 
with  God,  and  therefore  fails  to  find  him  in  the 
cool  of  the  day.  There  is  no  breathing  upward 
of  his  spirit  through^the  reverent  words  which 
he  utters  into  the  dear  heart  of  a  pres- 

Why  neg- 
lected by        ent  and  loving  Father.     The  prayer  is 

man}'. 

empty  and  worthless  because  it  is  not 
born  of  a  praying  spirit.  Those  affections  whioh 
should  be  growing  up  around  Christ  and  taking 
hold  of  God,  are  earth-clinging  and  prone.  No 
wonder  that  such  an  one  comes  from  his  closet 
unrefreshed.  He  lacks  a  prayerful  spirit  —  the 
first  prerequisite  to  all  living  forms  of  prayer. 
Those  who  refuse  to  pray  save  as  it  suits  their 
feelings,  and  who  therefore  have  no  stated  times 
for  praj^er,  should  remember  that  it  is  possible 
for  them  to  feel  at  all  times  like  praying.  This 
lack  of  feeling  or  impulse  never  comes  in  to 
fret   the    soaring   and    prevailing    soul.      He    is 


44  PRA  YER. 

always  ready  for  his  hours  of  converse  with 
God,  and  meets  them  with  a  deepening  thirst 
for  the  water  of  life.  They  are  channels  open- 
ing upward,  through  which  the  longings  of  his 
heart  flow  into  the  love  of  God.  So  far  are 
they  from  putting  the  least  check  on  his  free- 
dom that  they  alone  are  able  to  make  him  free 
indeed.  His  soul  would  be  cramped  and  sad 
but  for  this  opportunity  *o  open  itself  to  its 
incoming  God.  Whoever  has  true  spiritual  life 
dwelling  in  him  and  filling  him  is  not 
make  our       sorrowful,  but  morc  pleased  the  oftener 

closets  a  ]^       j^™        '^^    ^^^    J'^^     ^^     OUtfloW,    Or 

delight.  ''      °  ' 

feel  it  enlarged  by  the  shedding  abroad 
in  him  of  the  divine  spirit.  Like  the  thirsty 
traveller,  he  does  not  murmur  because  drink- 
ing fountains  occur  at  regular  intervals  along 
the  road.  He  is  glad  to  know  beforehand  at 
just  what  places  he  may  rest  and  be  refreshed. 
Regularity  is  not  wearisome,  but  welcome,  in  the 
doing  of  what  we  love  to  do.  The  spirit  of  prayer 
is  the  great  need.  Having  that,  the  more  the 
occasions  for  uttering  it,  the  greater  our  joy.  It 
is  in  his  closet,  alone  with  God,  that  the  Chris- 


ITS  FORMS.  45 

tian  burnishes  his  armor.  His  spirit  is  there 
bathed  and  warmed  in  the  sunlight  of  its  Fa- 
ther's love.  He  pours  forth  his  wants  without 
any  reserve.  None  of  them  are  too  trivial  for 
Him  without  whom  not  a  sparrow  falleth  on  the 
Freedom  of  g^ouud.  His  wholo  soul  is  laid  open 
the  closet.  ^^  God;  and  he  prays  and  makes 
confession  with  a  fullness  unsuited  to  any 
place  less  secluded.  It  was  this  basking  in 
the  radiance  of  God  that  made  the  faces  of 
the  prophets  shine.  Elijah  came  out  of  the 
secret  place  of  the  Most  High  to  work  won- 
ders in  the  sight  of  Israel.  David  remembered 
God  in  the  night  watches,  and  prevented  the 
morning  with  his  supplications.  The  witnesses 
to  the  power  of  secret  prayer  to  lift  up  and  in- 
spire men  cannot  be  counted  for  num- 
nies  to  its  ber.  It  is  the  Christian's  vital  breath, 
precious-  Q^^  ^g  ^^  prays  does  he  live  the 
life  which  Christ  brought  to  our  world. 
The  blessed  Son  of  God  himself  even  was  de- 
pendent on  his  private  devotions.  If  the  peo- 
ple thronged  him  through  the  day,  so  that  he 
could  not  be  alone,  he  would  go  away  upon  the 


46  PRA  YER. 

mountains  in  the  night  time,  and  there  have  his 
hours  of  intercourse  with  God.  Our  souls  re- 
new their  youth  in  this  calm  and  still  fellowship. 
They  are  made  to  leap  with  a  more  intense  life 
by  the  flowing  into  them  of  the  life  of  God  till 
their  very  substance  throbs  and  leaps  with  a 
joy  which  they  cannot  tell. 

3.    Another  form  in  which  the  spirit  of  prayer 

tends  to  utter  itself  is  public  and  social  prayer. 

A  new  element   here    comes   into   the 

Public  and 

social  exercise.     It  is  not  for  him  who  prays, 

alone,  but  for  those  also  whom  he  asks 
to  pray  with  him.  At  first  thought  it  seems 
almost  presumptuous  to  attempt  to  give  voice 
to  the  wants  of  a  large  company  of  worshippers. 
But  the  true  Christian  often  finds  more  comfort 
in  the  prayers  of  another  than  in  his  own.  This 
fact  should  encourage  us,  though  we  may  be 
able  to  ofi'er  only  what  seem  to  us  very  imper- 
fect  public   pravers.     The  youn^  dis- 

A  difficulty  ^  .  .  . 

to  be  over-     ciplc  wlio  sits  dowu  aftcr  this  exercise 

almost   mortified    by  the  thought  that 

no  one  has  been  edified,  is  often  mistaken.     He 

does  not  know  how  the  maturest  and  most  in- 


A 


ITS  FORMS.  47 

telligent  Christians  love  his  simple  and  child- 
like prayers.  We  should  take  care,  however, 
in  overcoming  this  hinderance  to  public  prayer, 
not  to  fall  into  its  peculiar  temptation.  That 
temptation  is  to  forget  the  God  in  whose  pres- 
ence we  stand,  and  make  our  prayer  solely  for 
human  ears.  Thus  our  utterance  ceases  to  be 
prayer,  and  is  changed  into  a  mere  harangue, 
whose  solemn  tone  is  an  offence  to  God.  He 
who  leads  in  the  service  of  public  prayer  should 
bear  in  mind  that  many  hearts  are  sending  up 
Ambitious  requests  to  God  through  his  utterance, 
prayers.  -g-^  should  usc  that  plain  and  simple 
language  which  is  becoming  in  them.  They  all 
speak  to  God  in  his  words,  and  it  is  the  prayer 
of  the  humble  that  God  does  not  despise.  We 
honor  the  greatness  of  God  by  speaking  to  him 
as  little  children,  since  our  sublimest  speech 
can  never  agree  with  his  infinite  majesty.  I 
am  disposed  to  favor  the  wise  use  of  written 
or  printed  forms  in  public  prayer.  Though  the 
pulpit  should  use  them  only  sparingly,  as  may 
tend  most  to  edification  in  any  case,  I  should 
be  glad   to  hear  them  used  often  in  the  social 


48  PRA  YER. 

meeting,  especially  by  those  who  distrust  their 
own  powers.  The  young  Christian  often  finds 
it  a  sore  trial  to  rise  up  before  us  and  pray. 
Let  him,  therefore,  procure  a  volume  of  printed 
prayers.  In  these  we  can  join  with  him  till 
he  srets  used  to  the  sound  of  his  own 

The  foi-m  " 

need  not  be     voicc  ;  till  lic  acquircs  confidence  and 

extempora-  . 

neousai-       scli-possession,   and   IS    so  at  home  m 
^^'^**  the  service  as  to  be  able  to  trust  his 

unaided  efforts.  If  our  young  brethren,  whom 
we  love  all  the  more  for  being  easily  abashed, 
would  follow  out  this  suggestion,  I  am  per- 
suaded that  it  would  give  us  a  much  larger 
number  of  praying  men  in  the  church  than  we 
now  have.  Familiarity  with  the  Scriptures  is 
a  great  help  in  public  to  those  who  would  clothe 
their  prayers  in  reverent  and  appealing  forms. 
I  say  "  familiarity  with  the  Scriptures,"  for  this 
Bible  imagery  should  come  to  the  praying  soul 
unsought.     We   cease   to   pray  as   we 

Use  of  bib- 
lical Ian-        struggle  for  it,  and  fall  into  the  intellec- 

^^^'^'  tual  effort  of  trying  to  remember  what 

we  have  half  forgotten.     It  is  better  that  we 

should  not  quote  God's  words  to  him  when  we 


ITS  FORMS.  49 

go  before  him  in  prayer,  than  that  our  souls  should 
fail  to  come  sweetly  and  lovingly  into  his  em- 
brace. An  uttered  form  of  words  to  which  we 
apply  the  term  '•  eloquent ''  can  hardly  be  a  true 
prayer.  Its  fault  is  in  calling  attention  to  itself, 
and  to  the  person  who  makes  it.  The  fact  that 
there  is  a  mercy-seat,  before  which  we  have 
bowed  together,  is  the  one  grand  impression 
which  a  public  prayer  should  leave.  As  the 
disciples  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  lifted 
up  their  eyes  and  saw  no  man  save  Jesus  only, 
so  should  it  be  with  us  after  the  devotions  of 
the  house  of  God ;  we  should  meet  our  divine 
Father  in  them,  and  forget  both  our- 
be^exTited^  sclvcs  and  him  who  leads  in  our 
in  public        prayers.      It   is   a   wronp:    to    us,   and 

prayer.  r      j  o  ; 

a  sin  against  God,  when  the  minister 
or  other  person  tries,  under  the  pretence  of 
praying  for  us,  to  see  how  much  he  can  work 
upon  our  feelings,  or  how  much  admiration  he 
may  beget  in  us  for  himself  The  worst  abuse 
of  public  prayer  is  that  which  makes  it  a  means 
of  giving  rebuke  or  advice  to  a  fellow-man. 
Yet  some  of  the  most  eminent  and  godly  men 
4 


50  PRAYER. 

have  been  guilty  of  this  sin,  and  owe  their  fame 
largely  to  the  skill  with  which  they  have  lashed 
other  men  in  their  prayers.  Many  a  prayer, 
so  called,  has  been  purely  a  homily, 
prayers  ^"^  ^  cloak  of  malicc  and  cowardice, 
should  not      j^   j^^g   served  as   the  covering  of  an 

preach.  ° 

invidious  thrust ;  things  were  hinted 
which  the  speaker  dared  not  say  in  honest 
fashion ;  he  gave  advice,  he  criticised,  he  found 
fault,  he  flattered  or  condemned,  in  the  name 
of  prayer  to  God.  I  am  at  loss  whether  most 
to  despise  the  meanness  or  abhor  the  impiety 
of  this  abuse ;  it  is  sacrilege  towards  God  and 
pusillanimity  towards  our  fellow-men.  The  wor- 
shipper in  the  public  or  social  meeting  has  a 

right  to  demand  that  whoever  speaks 

What  each 

worshipper     for   him  bofore    God   should   speak  as 

may  claim.  , 

it  becomes  his  own  heart  to  pray; 
that  his  words  come  forth  from  a  loving  and 
lowly  heart,  and  that  they  be  addressed  to  Him 
who  pities  our  frailty  and  our  sin.  This,  and 
nothing  else,  though  it  be  neither  elegant  nor 
flowing  in  language,  is  true  public  prayer. 
Thus  standing  and  speaking,  no  one  need  fear 


ITS  FORMS.  51 

about  the  form  of  his  petitions.  He  who  can- 
not join  with  such  a  leader,  however  faulty  his 
utterance,  shows  that  he  has  not  the  spirit  of 
prayer  in  him.  It  is  a  blessed  relief  and  re- 
freshment to  the  devout  soul  to  turn  from  the 
rolling  diction  of  the  self-conscious  pedant  and 
be  borne  upward  on  the  outpourings  of  unlet- 
tered faith.  Better  were  it  for  all  Christians  that 
they  should  never  learn  to  reason  like  the  sage 
than  that  they  should  forget  to  pray  like  the  child. 
4.  There  is  one  other  form  of  prayer  most 
grateful  to  the  human  heart,  arising  out  of  that 
mysterious  sympathy  which  there  is  between 
our  feelings  and  certain  musical  sounds. 

Music  may 

be  a  form  of  Any  swcct  uotc,  if  it  bc  prolonged, 
will  cause  some  chord  within  us  to 
vibrate  responsively ;  and  when  several  such 
melodies  are  combined  into  a  harmony,  their 
subtile  power  is  still  more  subduing.  Not  all 
musical  sounds  are  devotional.  Some  of  them 
excite  ludicrous  rather  than  reverent  emotions. 
They  all  have  their  examples  in  nature.  The 
babbling  of  the  brook  and  noisy  chirping  of 
the  birds  dispose  one  to  cheerfulness  and  gayety; 


52  PRA  YER. 

it  is  their  tendency  to  drive  away  from  us  any 
solemn  thought.  All  complicated,  curious  sounds 
affect  us  in  like  manner.     They  do  not  leave  the 

mind  to  its  own  musings,  but  draw  off 
diffteren*t  i^®  attention  to  themselves.  A  praying 
nrture*"       Spirit  is  most  pleased  with  the  simple, 

low,  and  deep-toned  voices  of  nature. 
The  soft  moaning  of  the  mountain  pine,  the 
whispering  of  the  leafy  elms,  the  solemn  voice 
which  comes  in  from  the  sea,  agree  with  it,  and 
lend  it  wings.  Philosophy  cannot  tell  how  it  is 
that  one  class  of  sounds  fills  us  with  laughter, 
while  another  class  makes  us  sober  even  to 
tears.  It  is  a  mystery.  We  know  only  the 
fact,  and  from  it  we  may  learn  valuable  lessons. 
The  power  of  different  kinds  of  music  to  awaken 
diverse  feelings  teaches  us  what  to  do  if  we 
would  stir  any  given  feeling  in  our  hearts.  A 
skilful   choir  of  singers   can   sway  an  audience 

to  any  mood.     It  is  in  their  power,  by 

A  power 

for  good  or     a  fcw  well-aimcd  measures,  to  deepen, 

change,  destroy,  or  utterly  reverse  a 

present  emotion.     This  susceptibility  of  men  to 

music  is  what  makes  it  a  power,  either  for  good 


ITS  FORMS.  53 

or  evil,  in  public  worship.  Especially  may  it 
help  in  giving  utterance  to  the  spirit  of  prayer. 
We  know  that  our  thoughts  become  clearer  to 
us  as  we  write  them  out,  yet  more  impressive 
if  that  writing  be  given  back  to  us  by  a  human 
voice,  more  impressive  still  if  the  writing  thus 
spoken  be  in  the  poetic  form ;  but  the  deep 
thoughts  of  our  hearts  are  never  fully  uttered, 
nor  do  they  reach  the  climax  of  their  power, 
till  they  are  taken  up  on  the  wings  of  holy 
song.  Every  assembly  of  worshippers  proves 
this.  From  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world  music 
has  found  its  noblest  home  in  God's  temples. 
Yet  all  music  is  not  sacred.     The  ser- 

Secular 

and  sacred     vico  of  song  iu  the  Lord's  courts,  like 

music. 

that  of  speaking  and  teaching,  has  its 
limits.  The  preacher  cannot  treat  all  subjects. 
Many  thoughts  occur  to  him  which  he  values 
very  highly ;  but  if  true  to  his  office,  he  will 
leave  them  out  of  his  sermons.  They  would 
not  deepen  those  religious  convictions  which 
it  is  his  business  to  make ;  therefore  they  do 
not  belong  to  the  sphere  of  the  pulpit,  but  to 
the  secular  assembly,  the  platform,  the  hall  of 


54  PRA  YER, 

common  debate.  In  this  respect  the  preacher 
has  occasion  to  die  daily,  as  he  ought  to,  for 
he  is  sent  to  preach  Christ,  not  his  own  wisdom. 
His  displays  of  smartness  and  startling  origi- 
nality, being  out  of  place  in  God's  house,  must 
occur  elsewhere.  But  preaching  is  no  more 
limited  than  sacred  music.  That  word  "  sacred  '*' 
should  stand  out  in  large  letters,  as  applied  to 
all  the  services  of  the  sanctuary.  Music  is  a 
language.  It  may  be  the  language  of  mirth. 
Sometimes  it  expresses  nothing  but  the  inge- 
nuity of  the  musician.  Often  it  embodies  only 
natural  emotions.  But  in  the  sanctuary  it  is 
sacred;  it  is  set  apart  from  all  other  uses  to  the 
purposes  of  religious  worship ;  there, 
StTof  before  God,  it  should  ever  be  the  lan- 
church  o-uae-e  of  devotion,  the  vehicle  of  divine 

choirs.  '-'        *-"  ' 

communion,  the  voice  of  prayer.  Bear 
in  mind  that  I  use  the  word  ''  prayer "  in  its 
broadest  sense,  to  denote  any  form  of  utterance 
through  which  the  soul  addresses  itself  to  God. 
It  includes  praise,  adoration,  confession,  or  any- 
thing else  entering  into  this  essential  idea. 
Now,  what  I  insist  upon  in  regard  to  sacred 


ITS  FORMS.  65 

music  is,  that  the  praying  soul  shall  find  in  it 
a  voice  suited  to  become  the  voice  of  prayer. 
The  limits  of  sacred  music  have  not  been  guard- 
ed more  than  those  of  sacred  eloq^uence.  There 
are  hymns  in  some  of  our  collections  which 
ought  never  to  be  read  in  the  temple  of 
prayer.  As  of  hymns  so  also  of  tunes.  We 
cannot  so  sing  all  of  them  as  to  be  thereby 
drawn  upward  from  ourselves  and  the  world 
into  God's  embrace ;  they  are  not  a  proper 
vehicle  for  either  our  prayers  or  our  praises. 
Other   tunes,   very   faulty   it   may   be, 

The  voice 

of  a  devout  if  judgcd  solcly  by  artistic  standards, 
being  full  of  a  devotional  spirit,  are 
sung  on  from  age  to  age,  growing  dearer  and 
dearer  to  the  heart  of  the  church,  despite  all 
the  criticisms  of  connoisseurs.  No  one  should 
be  regarded  who  complains  that  his  taste  as  an 
artist  is  not  met  in  the  songs  of  the  sanctuary. 
Those  songs  are  prayers.  It  is  enough  if  they 
touch  the  springs  of  faith,  and  if  our  souls  may 
rise  upon  them  to  the  down-coming  love  of  our 
God.  Art  may  do  its  utmost,  but  this  element 
should  not  be  left  out  or  obscured. 


56  PRA  YER. 

How  wonderful  this  sensitiveness  of  the  soul 
to  music  !  Its  holiest  emotions,  its  repentances, 
its  adoration,  its  prayers,  its  trust,  its  praises 
may  rise  up  to  God  through  inarticulate  har- 
monies. We  have  it  in  our  power  to  be  always 
furnished  with  this  voice  for  the  inner  wants 
of  the  spirit.  The  music  of  the  ocean  is  not 
always  low  and  solemn;  the  storm  lashes  it  to 
fury,  and  its  voice  is  lifted  up  wrathfully  on 
high.  The  winds  do  not  always  whisper  gently 
among  the  trees,  but  often  rush  madly  forth 
from  their  prison,  and  fill  the  sky  with  angry 
screams.  But  we  can  subject  this  spirit  and 
breath  of  nature  to  our   control.     We 

Art  may 

control  na-     cau  shut  up  the  soul  of  hamiony  in  our 

ture.  ...  1    •        1 

musical  mstruments,  and  ni  the  powers 
of  the  human  voice,  and  attune  it  to  the  deep 
and  tender  feelings  with  which  we  should  come 
before  God.  Thus  it  is  when  articulate  words 
fail  us  that  we  shall  not  lack  the  means  of  pour- 
ing out  our  hearts  in  prayer.  The  longing  of 
the  human  soul  for  God,  being  touched  by  the 
subtile  wand  of  harmony,  may  rise  to  our  refuge 
and  our  rest. 


ITS  FORMS.  57 

It  is  sweet  to  talk  with  God  in  silent  prayer ; 
a  relief  to  cry  out  to  him  for  help  in  sudden 
peril ;  blessed  to  go  away  and  find  him  alone  in 
our  closet  when  we  have  shut  the  door,  strength- 
ening to  stand  up  and  speak  forth  the  yearnings 
of  many  hearts  in  audible  tones.  But  when  a 
perfect  organ  stirs  the  sleeping  echoes 
fo^oT  C)f  some  ancient  tune  set  to  words  which 
public  Christians  of  remote  a2:es  chanted  alone; 

prayer.  *-'  c 

its  royal  notes,  and  an  according  choir 
swells  and  articulates  the  full  tide  of  sound, 
while  the  voices  of  a  vast  congregation,  i-ising 
up  like  mighty  waters,  lift  the  soul  heavenward, 
then  it  is  inspiring  and  enrapturing  to  pray. 
The  good  of  many  generations  stand  about  us 
and  join  their  voice  to  ours.  Every  Christian 
heart  is  melted,  and  every  individual  will  wafted 
forth  upon  the  gush  of  holy  desire.  Nor  do  the 
strains  seem  to  die  as  they  fade  away  upward 
one  after  another,  but  are  still  audible  to  our 
listening  faith,  blending  in  the  song  which  goeth 
up  forever  before  the  throne. 


58  PRA  YER. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   OBJECTS   OF   PRAYER. 

Those  of  us  who  are  trying  to  live  a  life  of 
prayer  are  often  thrown  into  doubt,  as  St.  Paul 
intimates  "that  he  sometimes  was,  concerning  the 
specific  objects  for  which  it  is  proper  that  we 
should  pray.  This  doubt  is  so  great  at  times 
as  to  be  a  hinderance  to  prayer.  We  fear  to 
go  before  God  and  give  our  longings  a 

Doubtful-  .  1         1  1         1      p  1      i 

nessof  free  voice,  lest  we  should  ask  lor  what 
""'"  '  God   cannot   wisely  give.     He   knows, 

better  than  ourselves,  what  we  need,  and  what 
any  others,  for  whom  we  are  burdened,  may 
need.  It  seems  to  us  like  doubting  the  omnis- 
cience of  God  and  his  infinite  love,  to  be  par- 
ticular and  definite  in  our  requests.  Do  we 
not  sometimes  come  from  the  mercy-seat  fear- 
ing that  we  have  prayed  for  objects  which  might 


ITS  OBJECTS.  59 

harm  us,  or  be  contrary  to  the  counsels  of 
eternal  widom,  if  bestowed?  Shall  we  keep 
on  crying  to  God  for  the  things  which,  we 
are  half  persuaded,  ought  to  be  withheld  ?  Here 
is  a  constantly  recurring  perplexity  in  the  life 
of  prayer.  "  We  know  not  what  to  pray  for  as 
we  ought ;  "  and  we  should  be  tempted  to  cease 
praying,  in  any  specfic  way,  were  we  not  as- 
sured that  '^the  Spirit  maketh  intercession  for 
us." 

The  trial  of  many  Christians  is  not  that  they 
have  no  communion  with  God  :  their  intercourse 
with  him  is  such  that  they  are  all  the  time 
in  a  calm  and  heavenly  frame ;  not  that  they 
are  unconscious  of  inner  wants  Avhich  his  full- 
ness alone  can  supply ;  not  that  they  are  averse 
to  the  practice  of  private,  social,  or  public 
prayer :   it  is   their  trial  that,  in  their  manifold 

relations  to  God  and  one  another,  and 
wlr"'"'     ^^^^  *^^®  complex  interests  of  life,  they 

know  not  what  blessings  would  be  ac- 
cording 'to  God's  will,  and  in  the  end  for  their 
own  best  good.  The  befitting  forms  of  prayer 
we    learn    from    the    occasions    on    which    we 


60  PRA  yER. 

make  them.  A  sudden  impulse  of  fear  or 
hope,  a  shock  of  grief  or  joy,  is  the  occasion 
for  ejaculatory  prayer.  The  daily  wants  of  the 
Christian  call  him  into  the  secret  place  where 
he  is  alone  with  God.  Public  prayer  is  the 
natural  result  of  our  fellowship  as  churches, 
and  of  our  working  together  under  Christ  for 
the  good  of  the  world. 

But  though  full  of  a  praying  spirit,  and  trying 
to  pray  always  as  the  occasion  requires,  the  voice 
of  prayer  yet  falters  on  the  lips  of  many  Chris- 
tians, for  the  reason  given  by  St.  Paul :  ^'  We 
know  not  what  w^e  should  pray  for."  The  form 
is  well  enough,  but  are  the  particular  requests 
such  as  we  ought  to  make  ?  We  doubt  our 
ability  to  judge  what  would  be  best  in  the 
exigency;  and  this  doubt  deepens  till  we  pray 
but  hesitatingly,  and  without  assurance,  or  re- 
solve to  cease  praying  altogether.  The  grand 
remedy,  to  which  we  should  ever  hasten  when 
this  perplexity  is  upon  us,  is  the  truth  that  the 
The  grand  blcsscd  Comfortcr  prays  for  us.  He 
relief.  jg  -j^  ^|-jQ   groanings  which   we    cannot 

utter.      He    breathes    our    sense   of    want   into 


ITS  OBJECTS.  61 

• 

the  heart  of  the  Father.  We  need  not  hesi- 
tate, but  may  speak  freely  whatever  longings 
crowd  to  our  lips ;  for  he  prays  through  our 
prayers,  graciously  dropping  out  of  them  what- 
ever is  faulty,  and  presenting,  in  his  golden 
censer,  only  so  much  as  accords  with  the  good 
will  of  God  concerning  us. 

The    assurance    that   the    Spirit    helpeth    our 
infirmities   is,   then,  the  blessed  argument  with 
which  we  may  ever  quiet  our  misgiving  hearts. 
Still,    we    should   be    glad   to  lessen   those    in- 
firmities,  or  be  rid  of  them,  as   much 

The  wish  to  . 

beridot  as  possible.  It  IS  proper  m  us  to 
desire  that  we  may  be  perfect  in  our 
supplications.  We  would  know  what  we  ought 
to  pray  for,  as  well  as  that  the  Spirit  helps 
us  when  we  pray  for  what  we  ought  not.  How 
can  we  obtain  this  knowledge  ?  Are  there 
any  metes  and  bounds  by  which  we  may  keep 
our  steps  ?  Have  any  marks  or  tests  been 
given  us  by  which  we  may  know  what  things 
we  ought  to  pray  for?  How  can  we  keep 
ourselves  from  asking  of  God  what  he  cannot 
wisely  grant? 


62  PRA  YER. 

I  venture  a  few  remarks  on  these  questions, 
not  in  the  hope  of  answering  them,  but  of  re- 
lieving the  Christian  hearts  which  so  often  are 
burdened  with  them.  The  trial  of  knowing 
but  in  part  what  to  pray  for,  must  be  ours  till 
we  know  as  we  are  known.     Yet  will 

May  gratify        .  .     .  p  , 

this  wish  in  it  minister  freedom  to  us  m  praymg,  to 
^\  '  know  as  much  as  we  can  of  the  proper 

objects  and  bounds  of  this  holy  exercise. 

1.   We    are    warranted    in   praying,   I   think, 
for  anything  which  God   has  declared 

Proper  to 

pray  for        that   hc    will   bring   to    pass.     I  know 

what  God  .  .  .   .        ^  ,  ^      ,      • 

has  prom-  that  lu  saymg  this  i  meet  what  is 
*^*'^'  perhaps  the  most  common  objection  to 

all  our  prayers.  ''  Why,"  it  is  urged,  '^  should 
we  pray  for  that  which  is  sure  to  take  place 
in  virtue  of  the  declared  will  of  God  ?  "  For 
me  it  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  this,  that  God 
A  common  ^scs  our  praycrs  among  the  means  by 
Objection.  ^j^.^^  ^^  .g  pleased  to  fulfil  his  coun- 
sels. Such  indeed  is  the  scriptural  reply.  In 
speaking  of  the  return  of  his  ancient  people 
from  captivity,  God  says,  "  I  the  Lord  have 
spoken  it  and  will  do  it,  yet  will  I  be  inquired 


ITS   OBJECTS.  63 

of  by  the  house  of  Israel  to  do  it  for  them." 
Daniel,  we  find,  did  not  remit  prayer,  but 
prayed  more  earnestly  for  the  escape  of  the 
Jews  from  Babylon,  when  he  knew  the  fact 
and  the  exact  time  of  their  release.  As  soon 
as  he  knew  that  God  had  willed  the  rebuilding 
of  Jerusalem,  he  set  his  face  unto  the  Lord 
God  with  fasting,  and  sackcloth,  and  ashes ; 
and  he  prayed,  saying,  "  I  beseech  thee,  let 
thine  anger  be  turned  away  from  thy 

The  scrip- 
tural an-        city  Jerusalem,  thy  holy  mountain,  and 

cause  thy  face  to  shine  upon  thy  sanc- 
tuary that  is  desolate."  This  is  but  one  of 
a  gieat  many  examples,  partly  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament and  partly  in  the  New,  where  inspired 
men  cried  earnestly  to  God  for  blessings  which 
they  knew  he  would  bestow. 

If  any  turn  from  Scripture  to  our  weak 
human  reason,  and  say  that  we  need  not  be 
careful  to  pray,  since  God  decrees  the  prayers 
as  well  as  the  objects  for  which  they  are  made, 
then  he  has  left  the  particular  question  of 
prayer,  and  opened  the  whole  subject  of  man's 
agency  as   related   to    God's  sovereign    control. 


64  PRA  YER. 

He    takes   the    ground   that   man   is   altogether 

irresponsible  for   the  working  out  of  the  divine 

plans.      All    events    are    purposed    of    God, — 

those  for  which  we  labor,  no  less  than 

Agreement  i   •    i  xxn 

of  reason  thoso  lor  which  WO  pray.  What  we 
tire.  ''^^^'     shall  eat,  and    drink,  and   wherewithal 

we  shall  be  clothed ;  every  success 
or  failure  in  life  ;  the  angry  and  the  kind  words 
which  we  speak ;  the  blows  and  the  charities 
dealt  out  to  our  fellow-men;  the  overthrow  of 
kingdoms  and  the  falling  of  the  hunted  spar- 
row, are  events  which  enter  into  the  eternal 
counsels:  yet  we  know  that  none  of  these 
things  come  to  pass  without  the  free  action 
of  the  human  will.  If  he  is  beside  himself 
who  refuses  to  plant  since  God  has  said  that 
the  harvest  shall  not  fail,  then  is  he  beside 
himself  who    says   that  prayer  is  useless    since 

the  things  for  which  we  pray  are  a 
tion^pelu-  part  of  God's  plan.  This  objection, 
'**'^*'  we    are  to  notice,  is  not  practical,  but 

purely  theoretical.  It  does  not  grow  out  of 
our  common  sense,  or  way  of  dealing  with 
affairs   of   present   moment   to   us,   but   out   of 


ITS  OBJECTS.  '  65 

our  metaphysics ;  it  is  a  child  of  the  specula- 
tive faculty  in  us.  That  all  events  are  from 
eternity  certain  we  know  from  the  nature  of 
God,  from  the  teachings  of  his  w^ord^  from 
the  convictions  of  our  own  minds ;  and  we 
also  know,  from  the  same  sources,  that  many 
of  these  events  will  not  take  place  without 
the  intervention  of  our  own  free  choices  and 
agency.  Practically  there  is  no  conflict  in 
the  case,  though  we  may  puzzle  ourselves  with 
the  theory  of  it  till  we  lose  all  heart  either 
for  prayer  or  labor.  We  are  between  the  two 
sides  of  an  archway,  whose  summit  is  wrapped 
^.    __      in  darkness.     That  the  sides  meet  and 

Disappears 

in  practice,  support  cacli  othor  somewhere  above 
us  we  know,  for  they  both  stand  firm ;  and  while 
the  theorist  sits  still,  complaining  that  he  cannot 
see  where  they  come  together,  the  earnest 
soul  moves  on  under  their  strong  protection 
to  the  triumph  and  crown  before  him. 

It  is    certain   that  all  forms  of  error,  wrong, 

and   sin   shall   come   to   an  end   in   the  world  ; 

God   has   purposed   and   foretold   the   universal 

triumph   of    good    over   evil ;    yet   the    devout 

5 


GG  PRA  YER. 

heart   is   not    thereby   kept   from    praying    for 
the  blessed   reign  of  love.     We  pray  for  what 
we  know  is  sure  to  come,  and  our  prayers  ani- 
mate us  to  strue-o-le  against  the  many 

Examples.  &0  &  J 

evils  about  us,  and  so  we  become  a 
part  of  the  means  by  which  God  gradually 
works  out  his  own  holy  counsels.  We  ask  God 
to  overrule  all  great  movements  among  men 
and  nations  for  the  bulding-up  of  his  kingdom, 
though  he  has  assured  us  that  he  will  thus 
use  them.  We  lift  up  our  cry  to  God,  beseech- 
ing that  the  wrath  of  man  may  praise  him ;  nor 
does  the  voice  of  our  prayer  falter,  but  rise 
with  a  stronger  faith,  when  we  remember  that 
he  has  purposed  what  we  pray  for.  Our 
prayers  are  not  out  of  place  because  the  thing 
prayed  for  is  sure  to  come  :  they  are  natural ; 
we  cannot  repress  them,  and  our  souls  live  by 
them. 

Many  prayers  are  offered  which  I  am  sure 
no  one  would  dare  to  offer  but  for  the  certainty 
that  the  things  prayed  for  will  come  to  pass. 
Some  of  the  prayers  recorded  in  the  Bible 
are   of  this   class.     Look   especially  at   the  im- 


ITS  OBJECTS.  67 

precatory  Psalms.  Why  did  David  dare  to  pray, 
as  he  did,  for  the  destruction  of  his  enemies? 
If  he  had  not  known  the  purpose  of  God  con- 
cerning them,  his  language  might  show  a  vin- 
dictive,   revengeful,    and    even     cruel 

Impre- 
catory spirit.     But  he  was  a  man  after  God's 

Psalms.  .  .        ,  ^ 

own  heart.  He  was  inspired  to  fore- 
see how  God  would  deal  with  the  wicked.  It 
was  his  devotion  to  the  will  of  God,  and  eager- 
ness to  see  that  will  done^  as  he  knew  it  would 
be  sooner  or  later,  which  caused  him  to  speak 
so  terribly  against  the  impious.  He  was  not 
inhuman  or  merciless  in  his  desires,  so  long 
as  he  but  acquiesced  in  the  declared  purposes 
of  God. 

If  we  ought  not  to  pray  for  events  which 
are  sure  to  take  place,  we  ought  not  to  pray 
for  the  conversion  of  the  world  to  Christ. 
The  kingdom  of  our  Lord  is  destined  to  fill 
the  earth ;  all  other  kingdoms  shall  be  absorbed 
into  it.  It  shall  spread  like  leaven  in  human 
society,  till  the  whole  is  leavened.  Christ  shall 
have  the  heathen  for  his  inheritance  ;  his  ban- 
ner shall  float  over  all  lands  ;  every  knee  shall 


68  PRA  YER. 

bow  to  him ;  the  glory  of  the  millennial  morn- 
ing is  on  its  way  to  us.  It  is  fixed  by  the 
decree  of  God  that  swords  shall  be 
lows  if  Ave  beaten  into  ploughshares,  that  the  lion 
Tray  for  ^^  eat  grass  as  the  ox,  that  the  leop- 
thingsde-       g^j,^   gi^^ji   Y\Q  down  with   the  kid   and 

creed. 

the  wolf  with  the  lamb,  and  that  a 
little  child  shall  lead  them.  The  blessed  state 
to  which  this  beautiful  imagery  points  us  is 
predetermined  of  God.  He  will  bring  it  to 
pass  after  his  own  eternal  purpose.  We  know 
that  this  promise  of  God  is  sure.  Yet  we  do 
not  pray  falteringly,  but  more  freely  and  ear- 
nestly, on  account  of  our  knowledge.  Our  faith 
already  sees  the  heavenly  ages  which  are  com- 
ing ;  and  this  "  substance  of  things  hoped  for  " 
only  makes  us  the  more  instant  in  prayer, 
and  all  labors  of  love,  and  long-suffering,  and 
patience. 

Christ  declares  that  the  souls  which  have 
believed  on  his  name  dwell  in  perpetual  safety. 
This  we  know.  The  Father  has  given  them  to 
him,  and  he  is  engaged  to  keep  the  least  and 
feeblest  of  them  all ;   they  are  his,  and  nothing 


ITS  OBJECTS.  69 

shall  be  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  his  hand. 
Yet  where  were  our  comfort,  under  the  daily 
sense  of  want  and  weakness,  if  we  were  not 
free  to  ask  God  to  keep  us,  to  uphold  our 
goings,  to  pardon  and  cleanse  us,  to  save  us 
from  wandering,  to  bring  our  unsteady 
persever-  feet  iuto  the  citj  built  of  gold  ?  It  is 
the  will  of  Christ  that  all  whom  the 
Father  has  given  him  should  be  with  him  where 
he  is,  that  they  may  behold  the  glory  which 
he  had  before  the  world  was.  But  this  will 
of  his  does  not  hush  the  cry  of  our  yearning 
spirits.  It  makes  us  bold  to  utter  forth  our 
longings ;  to  venture  near  in  strong  supplica- 
tion, and  plead  that  the  will  of  Christ  may  be 
perfected  in  us.  We  should  languish,  and 
consume  away  in  soul,  if  forbidden  to  ask  God 
for  the  glory  he  has  promised  us.  The  vic- 
tories of  the  church  and  the  joys  of 
Jrace^°^  hcavcn,  although  made  sure  to  us  by 
the  word  of  God,  are  not  objects  in 
which  we  have  no  present  concern.  Our 
prayers  and  good  works  enter  into  the  provi- 
dential means  by  which  they  are  to  be  secured. 


70  PRA  YER, 

Not  without  us,  entering  into  his  own  mind  and 
will  by  the  appointed  way,  which  is  prayer,  Avill 
God  bring  them  to  pass.  He  declares  unto 
us  what  shall  be  in  the  end  of  the  world,  not 
to  repress  our  zeal  and  longings,  but  that  the 
life  of  prayer  in  us  may  unfold  more  vig- 
orously, in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God. 

2.  Another  class  of  objects,  which  it  seems 
to  me  that  we  may  prope-rly  pray  for,  is  all 
those  which  we  feel  would  be  agreeable  to 
the  divine  will,  but  which  God  has  not  fore- 
told as  certain.  This  remark  brings  us  upon 
the  plane  of  our  most  usual  prayers.  It  would 
be  asrreeable  to  the  will  of  God  that 

What  ^ 

would  hon-     evcry   soul    which    hears    the    gospel, 

or  God, 

though  un-  on  any  given  Sabbath,  should  believe 
objecro/"  in  Christ ;  and  therefore  we  may  pray 
prayer.  ^^^  ^^^  rcsult,  thougli  by  uo  mcaus 
sure  of  it,  but  the  rather  of  its  opposite.  In 
the  cases  just  considered,  the  objects  to  be 
prayed  for  were  both  desirable  in  themselves 
and  sure  to  be  reached ;  in  the  cases  to  which 
we  now  come,  the  element  of  future  certainty 
is  taken  away.     Only  the  desirableness  remains. 


ITS  OBJECTS.  71 

In  themselves  the  objects  would  be  for  the 
glory  of  God ;  and  therefore  we  may  pray 
for  them,  though  God,  for  the  sake  of  some 
higher  glory  which  they  would  prevent,  may 
withhold  them.  No  preacher  of  the  gospel  is 
sure  that  all  who  hear  him  will  repent  and 
believe  ;  yet  he  knows  that  the  honor  of  Christ 
would  be  promoted  by  their  so  doing,  and 
hence  he  is  all  the  time  beseeching  God  that 
this  great  blessing  may  come  upon  them.  When 
a  measure  of  national  policy  is  about  to  be 
taken  up,  in  manifest  opposition  to  the  king- 
dom of  Christ,  no  soul  of  godly  citizens  can 
fail  to  be  lifted  in  prayer  against  it.  The 
more  likely  any  great  public  wrong  is  to  be 
done,  the  sweeter  the  incense  of  our  prayers 
for  its  prevention,  while  they  go  up  from  true 
and  earnest  hearts.  The  world  is  full  of  this 
class  of  occasions  for  prayer.     We  cannot  look 

on  any  side  of  us  without  seeing  much 
iiiustra-        which   we  know  that  God  abhors,  3''et 

which  he  may  suffer  to  continue  on, 
despite  all  our  prayers  and  efforts  to  the  con- 
trary.    Suppose  the  case  of  a  man  in  power,  — 


72  PRA  YER. 

president,  king,  emperor.  He  is  not  an  earnest 
follower  of  Christ.  If  he  were,  he  might 
be  a  great  helper  in  our  Lord's  work.  Will 
the  Holy  Spirit  change  his  worldly  heart  ? 
This  seems  very  doubtful  to  us  when  we  look 
at  him.  But  it  is  a  thing  to  be  longed  for, 
both  for  the  honor  of  God  and  the  good  of 
men.  We  may  therefore  pray  for  it,  pray- 
ing more  earnestly  the  more  appearances  are 
against  it.  Human  society,  also,  is  full  of  evils  : 
the  powerful  are  haughty,  the  masses  are  en- 
vious, God  is  forgotten  in  the  general  worship 
of  mammon.  There  is  no  sign  that  these  evils 
are  about  to  be  done  away.  All  that  we  see 
indicates  not  the  near,  but  only  the  very  re- 
mote triumph  of  the  gospel.  But  shall  our  faith 
fail,  or  our  strong  prayers  cease  to  go  up,  be- 
cause the  victory  of  right  ov^r  wrong,  which 
we  know  would  be  for  the  glory  of  Christ, 
is  so  wrapped  about  with  clouds  and  dark- 
ness? He  to  whom  that  victory  belongs 
has  taught  us,  in  the  story  of  the  importu- 
nate widow,  that  we  may  pray  for  a  good 
object    even   when   it   is   to    us   wholly   uncer- 


ITS   OBJECTS.  73 

tain  —  when   our  wish   that  it  may  be   granted 

involves     the    duty    of    hoping    against    hope. 

If  our  svmpathy  with  Christ  be  more 

Uncertain-  v       t.  ^ 

ty  may  in-     passive  than  active,  and  we  dwell  on  his 

tensify  the 

spirit  of  final  reign  instead  of  the  hard  battles 
which  lead  to  it,  our  prayers  in  the 
face  of  present  opposition  may  falter.  But  if 
we  deeply  feel  how  great  a  thing  any  victory 
over  evil  ic^,  and  how  able  God  is  to  give  it 
even  while  we  are  speaking,  we  shall  pray 
for  it  as  earnestly  as  though  we  saw  it  within 
our  certain  grasp.  When  the  heart  of  Jacob 
was  set  on  a  special  favor,  which  he  desired 
of  God,  he  prayed  more  eagerly  as  his  case 
seemed  less  hopeful.  In  his  despair  he  laid 
hold  of  the  angel,  and  wrestled  Avith  him. 
The  love  of  God  in  us  takes  many  forms.  At 
one  time  we  exult  before  him  over  the  coming 
glories  which  he  has  promised  ,*  at  another 
time  we  plead  with  him  for  blessings  Avith- 
out  which  souls  must  perish,  but  of  which 
prophecy  has  not  spoken. 

The    Christian   who    ceases   to    pray   for    his 
Master's   cause,  as   the   progress  of  that   cause 


74  PRA  YER. 

grows  doubtful,  sets  himself  against  the  bidding 
of  God.  He  does  violence  to  the  spirit  of  God, 
which  has  been  given  unto  him.  Yielding  him- 
self to  that  spirit,  his  prayers  will  not  become 
vague  and  cold.  Outward  difficulties  will  not 
daunt  him,  or  raise  any  fear  in  his  heart.  Be- 
lieving that  with  God  nothing  is  impossible, 
and  that  no  true  prayer  is  ever  in  vain, 

The  soul  ^      *^  ' 

forced  back     hc  wiU  couie  boldly  to  the  mercy-seat, 

upon  God.  .  1.11 

and  besiege  it  for  blessings  w^iich  have 
not  been  promised.  The  answer  may  not  come 
in  the  exact  form  he  desires,  but  he  is  sure 
that  it  comes.  That  his  prayer  is  heard  he 
may  not  know  now,  but  he  shall  know  here- 
after. It  may  then  be  revealed  to  him  that 
his  quiet  waiting  on  God  was  itself  the  very 
substance  of  the  things  he  prayed  for.  We 
must  pray  for  objects  which  are  uncertain, 
feeling  that  in  themselves  they  would  be  for 
God's  glory.  We  can  have  a  faith  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  which  we  shall  believe  that  which 
appeals  to  our  unbelief.  A  strong  zeal  for 
Christ  may  cause  the  greatest  hinderance  to 
depart  and  be  carried  into  the  sea.     This  look- 


ITS  OBJECTS.  75 

ing  for  victories  of  which  there  is  no  sign,  solely 

because  we  would   see  God    glorified   in   them, 

will  gird  us  for  instant  labor.     We  shall  forget 

our  weakness :    nothine:  will  seem  too 

Prayer  '  ° 

stiumiates      hard  for  us  ;    through  Christ  strength- 

to  labor. 

ening  us  we  can  do  what  the  exigency 
calls  for;  and  so  gradually  we  shall  ourselves 
put  obstacles  out  of  the  way,  and  secure,  by 
our  labor  and  patience,  the  things  we  asked 
God  to  grant  us.  It  is  one  of  our  most  joy- 
ous experiences  when,  after  earnest  prayer 
and  toil  amid  great  discouragements,  we  see 
the  clouds  that  had  settled  upon  us  rolling  off; 
when  we  may  gird  ourselves  for  new  battles, 
in  the  strength  of  past  triumphs,  having  learned 
that  the  darkest  uncertainties  which  lower  about 
our  holy  cause,  are  nothing  to  Him  who  gives 
us  the  victory  and  the   dominion. 

3.  There  remains  but  one  other  class  of 
objects  for  me  to  speak  of;  those,  namely, 
which  are  neither  sure  nor  in  their  nature 
seem  to  be  for  the  glory  of  God,  but  which 
would  not  conflict  with  the  divine  character, 
while   they  would  be   a  blessed  relief  or  com- 


76  PRA  YER. 

fort  to  us.  For  all  such  objects  I  think  it 
right  that  we  should  pray,  on  the  simple 
ground  that  they  are  very  dear  to  us.  We 
Whatever  ought  uot  to  fccl  that  WO  are  treading 
theciiris-      ^^   forbidden    around,  when  we    carry 

tian  heart  o  i  J 

craves  may     ^j^y  experience  or  allotment,  any  trial 

be  prayed 

for.  or    hope    or    fear    entering    into    our 

present  life,  before  God.  It  is  not  only  the 
last,  but  the  best  and  sweetest  resource  of  the 
Christian,  when  other  comforts  fail,  to  be  allowed 
to  pray.  Whether  God  will  interpose  or  not 
we  cannot  tell ;  but  how  blessed  to  ask  of  him 
what  we  yearn  for,  when  the  very  asking  fills 
us  with  his  inflowing  life !  Some  good  men, 
mostly  in  the  Romish  church,  have  thought  it 
not  wrong  to  pray  for  the  dead  who  died  in 
their  sins.  This  custom  I  cannot  rudely  con- 
demn, though  the  Bible  seems  to  me  to  be 
against  it.  It  is,  no  doubt,  a  profanation,  es- 
pecially as  many  practise  it ;  it  weakens  the 
proper  emphasis  of  this  life,  as  the  only  time 
for  coming  into  peace  with  God  of  which  we 
have  knowledge ;  yet  I  sometimes  think  that 
God  may  bear  with  us,  not  angry,  but  pleased 


ITS  OBJECTS.  77 

with   our   strong   crying   and    tears,   when    our 

natural   yearnings,   which    go    out    after    loved 

and   lost   ones,   are    poured    forth   into 

One  or  two 

possible         his    ear.     Also,  when   our   friends    are 

exceptions. 

sick  unto  death,  and  we  see  no  hope 
for  them  but  to  die,  the  strong  impulse  is 
to  plead  for  their  lives ;  and  we  must  thus 
plead,  or  we  trample  on  our  own  hearts  as 
well  as  the  divine  mercy.  I  believe  that  many 
such  prayers  are  heard,  and  that  our  dead  are 
given  back  to  us  alive  by  the  healing  power 
of  God.  The  promise  that  the  prayer  of  faith 
shall    save   the    sick    should,   perhaps,   not    be 

understood  now  as  it  was  in  the  days 
terposition  of  tho  apostlcs.  God  docs  not  mani- 
^tritlfai.        f®s*   himself  to   us   within  the  domain 

of  nature,  as  he  did  to  his  people 
of  old.  His  miracles  are  in  these  days  inward 
and  spiritual,  rather.  In  thi*s  higher  and  nobler 
sense  only  he  may  choose  to  grant  our  desire ; 
yet  even  the  temporal  mercy  may  be  sought  at 
his  feet,  and  to  lie  before  him  as  waiting  sup- 
pliants prepares  us  for  whatever  issue  he  shail 
send. 


78  PRA  YER. 

These  sharp  trials,  which  seem  at  first  to 
preclude  hope,  do  not  kill  the  impulse  to  pray, 
but  often  make  it  burn  with  an  intenser  flame. 
The  Christian  may  live  on  for  months,  and 
forget  to  lift  his  soul  mightily  unto  God,  while 
at  peace  in  his  worldly  affairs.  But  when 
troubles  fall  thick,  and  the  hand  of  God  is 
heavy  on  him,  his  tongue  is  unloosed. 

Trouble  a  -r-»  n 

spur  to  Prayer  becomes  him  more,  the  more 
pray«'-         ]^-g  p^^|-^  grows  dark.      While  the  sea 

was  smooth  he  let  his  Master  sleep  undisturbed 
on  the  pillow ;  but  now  that  the  storm  is  burst- 
ing in  fury  about  him,  and  the  great  waves  are 
going  over  his  head,  he  springs  to  the  almighty 
Helper,  saying,  ''  Save  me,  or  I  perish." 

It   is   a   question   often   raised,   how   far   our 
prayers   which   are    for    personal    and    private 
blessings  shall   be  made  in  public.     Some   per- 
sons, having   a   natural  dread  of  pub- 
pubiic  licity,  say  that   they  belong  wholly  to 

Individ-        the  closet  and  family.     With  this  feel- 

uals. 

ing  I  cannot  agree.  Our  modesty 
should  not  carry  us  too  far.  The  fellowship 
which  we  have  one  with  another  in  Christ  has 


ITS  OBJECTS.  79 

its  privileges  and  claims.  Why  should  we 
shrink  from  telling  it  to  the  f^hurch,  and  ask- 
ing them  to  help  us  bring  our  burden  before 
God,  if  there  be  on  our  hearts  some  heavy 
load  which  God  only  can  remove  ?  ''  Brethren, 
pray  for  us,"  is  the  cry  of  the  Christian's  heart 
while  he  yearns  after  a  wayward  child,  or  longs 
for  the  enlargement  of  his  own  soul,  or  feels 
some  dear  object  slipping  daily  out  of  his  grasp. 
No  doubt  this  privilege  is  often  abused.  Worldly 
men  have  heard  themselves  named  in  large 
assemblies,  and  made  the  subject  of  frantic 
appeals  to  God,  in  a  way  that  has  repelled 
them  from  the  house  of  prayer.  In  all  such 
cases  some  knowledge  of  men  is  needed,  as 
well  as  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ, 
that  our  prayers  may  be  the  voice  of  other 
hearts  than  our  own,  and  not  offend  the  finer 
feelings  of  any  sensitive  worshipper.  But  this 
sensitiveness  may  go  too  far.  It,  rather  than 
the  other  extreme,  is  the  danger  of  many 
Christians.  We  need  to  cultivate  frankness. 
It  does  us  good  to  tell  men  what  God  is 
doing   for   our   souls.     We   ought  to   speak  to 


80  PRA  YER. 

one  another  in  hymns  and  spiritual  songs.     How 
are  Ave  to  obey  the  command  to  pray 

An  undue 

sensitive-  for  ono  another,  if  personal  petitions 
are  for  the  closet  alone  ?  if  we  never 
bring  our  private  burdens  to  the  public  as- 
sembly ?  This  whole  matter  will  regulate  itself, 
I  believe,  so  that  we  need  take  no  thought  for 
it,  but  let  the  spirit  of  prayer  in  us  flow  out 
just  as  it  will,  in  all  places,  while  we  are  full 
of  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  of  that  childlikeness 
which  makes  us  great  in  his  kingdom.  I  have 
known  prayers  of  this  class  to  be  made  the 
occasion  of  denouncing  enemies,  or  of  eulo- 
gizing and  courting  friends ;  but  they  cease 
to  be  prayers  just  so  far  as  thus  abused ;  nor  is 
this  abuse  any  reason  why  we  should  cut  our- 
selves off  from  the  dearest  refuge  to  whicli 
we  may  fly  in  our  distress. 

It  cannot  be  wrong  for  us  to  do,  in  a  spirit 
of  brotherly  love,  what  Christ  did  so  often 
for  his  troubled  friends.  Since  he  wept  and 
prayed  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  we  may  call 
on  God  for  our  afflicted  brethren.  St.  Paul 
repeatedly    asked    the    churches    to    pray    for 


ITS   OBJECTS.  81 

Lim,  assuring  them  that  they,  were  always 
mentioned  in  his  prayers.  A  pastor  cannot 
preach  the  gospel  with  much  hope,  if  the 
Spirit  of  Heaven  be  not  all  the  time  breathed 
Scriptural  about  him  in  the  supplications  of  his 
'^^^^'  people.     I   think   we    should    carry  all 

these  interests,  so  dear  to  one  or  another  of 
us,  yet  often  so  uncertain,  before  God  —  the 
conversion  of  our  families,  the  safety  of  absent 
friends,  the  cause  of  the  needy,  the  infirm,  the 
bereaved.  He  has  encouraged  us  to  do  this, 
—  not  by  revealing  to  us  his  own  will  in  the 
case,  but  by  assuring  us  that  he  is  a  God  of 
compassions.  We  come  to  him  not  knowing 
just  what  he  will  do,  or  whether  our  request 
be  in  the  highest  sense  right  and  proper ;  yet 
yearning  for  the  particular  blessing,  and  sure 
that  he  pitieth  us  as  a  father  his  children. 
We  lay  our  case  at  his  feet,  while  he  bends 
in  loving-kindness  over  us ;  and  the  witness 
of  his  Spirit  with  ours  fills  us,  in  that  very 
moment,  with  a  peace  which  needs  not  to  be 
increased,  and  which  no  denial  of  our  special 
requests  can  take  away. 
6 


82  PRAYER. 

The  triumph  of  prayer  is  the  submissive 
spirit  in  which  it  culminates.  Oh,  what  a  vic- 
tory it  is  for  the  Christian  when  he  can  say, 
"My  soul  is  as  a  weaned  child"!  Let  us 
strive  for  this  faith,  —  that  in  their  noblest 
meaning  all  our  prayers  are  indeed  answered. 
If  we  lack  this  conviction  we  shall  go  on 
mourning  in  our  pilgrimage.  What  deeper 
sorrow  can  we  reach  than  the  belief  that  God 
does  not  hear  our  prayers  ?  How  painful  our 
Asnbmis-  bliuduess  if  we  fail  to  see  the  answer 
sive  spirit.  l3ecause  it  comes  not  in  such  form  as 
our  poor  hearts  chose  for  it !  If  all  things 
are  for  the  sake  of  the  life  of  Christ  which  is 
in  us,  whatever  God  sends  is  his  Amen  to 
our  supreme  desire.  The  Good  Shepherd  is 
surely  leading  us  to  just  the  place  we  would 
find ;  therefore  let  him  lead  us  by  the  way 
which  is  hardest,  even  though  it  be  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,  if  his  own  wisdom  so 
appoint.  We  may  not  see  the  blesssing,  so 
as  to  find  in  it  what  we  most  sought,  till  after 
many  days ;  perhaps  never,  while  we  see 
through    a    glass    darkly,   but    only   when    we 


ITS  OBJECTS.  83 

see  as  we  are  seen.  The  treasure  is  veiled 
to  our  present  sight,  but  it  is  laid  up  for  us 
where  no  thief  approacheth.  It  is 
know,  at  safe  in  that  radiant  land  to  which 
Infrue^  ^^  shadows  and  disappointments  never 
prayers  are     ^ome.     Will  it   uot  be    an  occasiou  of 

heard. 

immeasurable  joy,  when  the  veil  is 
lifted,  to  find  that  all  the  true  prayers  which 
we  offered  on  earth  are  indeed  answered? 
that  the  desires  of  our  hearts  have  ripened 
into  immortal  fruits,  and  that  we  shall  feed 
upon  them  in  the  house  not  made  with  hands, 
while  the  Lamb,  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne,  leads  us  unto  living  fountains  of  water  ? 


84  PRA  YER, 


CHAPTER    lY. 

THE    FRUITS    OF   PRAYER. 

All  true  prayers  are  answered,  as  we  shall 
find  in  heaven,  if  not  on  earth.  Yet  the  delays 
to  answer,  either  seeming  or  real,  with  which 
God  often  tries  us,  may  be  taken  as  positive 
denials.  The  praying  heart  which  thus  takes 
Atempta-  them  is  tempted  to  grow  weary  of 
**^"'  prayer,  and  to  say  that  it  is  a  profit- 

less service.  Yet,  even  granting  that  the  things 
for  which  the  Christian  prays  are  withheld,  it 
does  not  follow  that  he  prays  in  vain  ;  for  we 
are  to  consider  the  reflex  influence  of  prayer. 
The  life  of  prayer  is  a  school  to  the  believing 
soul ;  in  it  one  finds  a  discipline  which  should 
ever  keep  him  from  feeling  that  he  prays  to 
no  profit.  It  is  of  these  inner  fruits  of  prayer, 
variously  named  its  philosophical  or  subjective 


ITS  FRUITS.  85 

influence,   its    discipline,  its  reflex  power,  that 
I  will   now  speak.     The  Christian  has 

The  life  of  ^ 

prayer  a        a  rich  answcr  to  all  his  prayers  in  the 

school.  .     ,  I'll  I        1  • 

noble  training  which  they  are  to  his 
own  soul,  though  the  special  things  asked  of  God 
should  never  come. 

Faithfulness  to  any  religious  duty  makes  the 
soul  better.  "  Thereby  shall  good  come  unto 
thee,"  is  the  dear  assurance  with  which  God 
calls  us  into  his  service.  This  is  the  certain  re- 
ward of  all  well-doing.  If  we  give  to  the  needy, 
we  know  that  to  give  is  more  blessed  than  to 
receive.  The  benefactor  is  always  the  chief 
beneficiary.  He  that  watereth  is  watered  also 
himself.  He  shall  reap  bountifully  who  sows 
bountifully.  We  save  our  lives  by  losing  them. 
Whoever  labors  most  in  the  Redeemer's  name 
Spiritual  l^^s  the  largest  measure  of  blessed- 
^^^^'  ness.     In  the  accumulation  of  this  in- 

ward and  spiritual  wealth,  if  in  no  other  sense, 
the  words  of  St.  James  are  true  :  "  The  eff'ect- 
ual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth 
much." 

But,  leaving  these  general  statements,  let  me 


86  PRA  YER. 

specify  some  of  the  fruits  which  grow  in  the 
soul  under  the  influence  of  a  life  of  prayer. 
1.    One  of  these  blessed  inner   fruits   or  re- 
wards is  the  knowledge  of  God  which 

Knowledge  j.  ja  ^  tc 

of  God  comes  to  us  through  our  prayers,     it 

comes  by       ^^   \\Q2.x   of  auv  uoblc    or   marvcllous 

prayer.  '' 

thing,  yet  strange  to  us,  we  do  well 
to  seek  it  out  and  to  enter  so  far  as  we  can  into 
its  meaning  and  life.  It  may  claim  this  of  us 
for  its  own  sake,  and  our  souls  are  blessed  and 
enlarged  in  paying  it  their  homage.  The  struc- 
ture  and  history  of  our  planet  are  to 

All  study 

of  truth  en-  tlic  gcologist  a  fasciuatiug  study.  The 
heavens  show  a  vast  field  of  inquiry  to 
the  watchful  eye ;  their  grandeur  and  mystery 
are  a  challenge  to  us  to  search  their  depths. 
The  science  of  mind  also,  more  than  any  mate- 
rial science,  has  a  claim  on  our  regard.  What 
are  the  most  wonderful  adjustments,  motions, 
and  subtile  forces  in  the  outer  world  by  the  side 
of  that  human  spirit  which  can  trace  them  out 
and  make  them  work  together  for  its  own  pleas- 
ure !  And  if  our  minds  be  so  worthy  of  study, 
how  much  more  the  mind  of  an  angel  or  archan- 


ITS  FRUITS.  87 

gel !     And  if  we  are  lost  in  wonder  over  the 

powers  of  the   spirits  before  the  throne,  what 

shall  we   say  of  the  Kins:  himself,  in 

God  the  *^  °  ' 

greatest  of     whoso  prosence  they  veil  their  faces? 

truths. 

It  must  be  an  infinitely  greater  thing 
to  know  God  and  enter  into  his  blessed  life  than 
to  study  out  the  creatures  of  his  power. 

But  every  science  has  its  instruments  and 
methods,  without  which  it  could  make  no  prog- 
ress. The  geologist  could  do  nothing  but  for 
the  earthquake,  the  volcano,  the  action  of  water 
and  of  ice,  leaving  behind  them  a  record  of  by- 
gone millenniums,  and  bringing  the  central  parts 
of  our  globe  within  reach.  The  astronomer  has 
his  glass  and  his  calculus,  by  which  the  heavens 
are  made  to  give  up  their  secrets. 
fnThaliti  Mental  science  grows  by  reflection 
instru-  upon  our  own  inner  life,  Avhose  vary- 

ments.  ^  '  '^ 

ing  phenomena  the  wonderful  organ 
of  consciousness  enables  us  to  note  and  record. 
And  so  there  is  a  means,  an  indispensable 
method  and  instrument,  to  be  used  in  gaining 
a  knowledge  of  God.  It  is  by  prayer  alone 
that   the    soul  of  man  may  come  near  to  God, 


88  PRA  YER. 

and  behold  and  study  his  attributes.  The  stu- 
dent of  nature  may  learn  something  of  God. 
Self-study  brings  one  where  God's  voice  is 
heard.  But  no  man,  however  observing  or 
thoughtful  and  acute,  is  able  to  know  God 
save  in  the  way  of  prayer.  This  is  the  sweet 
ministration  for  which  he  that  would  find  out 
God  must  wait.  Prayer  opens  the  heavens,  and 
makes    them    shine.     By   it   we    climb 

Prayer  the       ^^        j^^  ^^^  ^  -^     ^.^j^-^     ^j^^ 

instrument  ^ 

of  divine       yg{j^     Drawing   near   to   God,  we  find 

science. 

him  drawing  near  to  us ;  his  life  comes 
into  us  as  the  ocean-tide  into  the  river,  and  we 
flow  into  him  as  the  river  into  the  sea.  It  is 
prayer  which  brings  us  to  the  point  where 
the  human  life  mingles  with  the  divine.  In  no 
way  save  by  its  blessed  ministrations  can  we 
rise  to  God ;  his  ways  are  higher  than  our  ways, 
and  his  thoughts  than  our  thoughts,  till  the  spirit 
within  us  cries,  ^'  Abba,  Father."  When  we  have 
learned  what  we  can  about  him  by  searching 
in  nature,  and  have  scanned  his  glories  as  holy 
men  tell  them  to  us,  and  have  questioned  our 
own  understanding  and  reason,  we  are  yet  with* 


ITS  FRUITS.  89 

out  that  true  knowledge  of  him  for  which  our 
spirits  thirst.  We  are  like  one  who  would 
search  the  heavens  with  unaided  eye,  or  ex- 
pound the  story  of  the  earth  without  going 
down  into  its  depths,  or  tell  us  what  is  in 
man  while  regardless  of  self-study.  Whatever 
we  have  found  out  in  other  ways,  new  words 
of  glory,  wisdom,  and  love  will  open  to  us  in 
God  as  we  grow  into  the  habit  of  prayer.  While 
we  tread  this  path  with  willing  feet,  God  reveals 
to  us  what  he  hides  from  the  wise  and  prudent ; 
divine  truths  never  known  to  the  mere  sage 
are  clear  to  the  pray  ins;  child.     Hence 

No  true  r      J       &   ^ 

knowledge      the  woudcr  ofton  seen  in  actual  life  : 

of  God  by  .      .  ,  p  ^ 

other  the   philosopher  sitting  at  the  feet  of 

the  peasant  and  listening  with  awe  to 
his  unlettered  master,  who  tells  him  of  a  world 
he  has  failed  to  find.  The  weak  things  are 
stronger  than  the  mighty ;  the  foolish  things 
confound  the  wise.  Prayer  has  never  brought 
the  great  man  who  thus  wonders  into  fellowship 
with  God.  He  beholds  the  mighty  Ruler  of 
worlds,  but  not  the  Father  of  his  own  spirit. 
He   sees  justice,  skill,  and  power,  but  not  the 


90  PRA  YER. 

depths  of  long-suffering,  forgiveness,  and  pity- 
ing love  in  our  God.  When_ his  feet  can  go 
no  farther,  the  praying  soul  spreads  its  wings 
and  flies  away  to  be  at  rest  in  loving  arms. 
Where  his  eye  sees  but  a  speck  of  nebulous 
matter,  prayer  reveals  to  his  lowly  brother 
bright  regions  of  divine  goodness,  radiant  at- 
tributes clustered  in  perfect  harmony.  To  the 
prayerless  heart  God  is  only  a  remote  force. 
There  is  in  him  no  nearness,  no  fatherly  ten- 
derness, no  beauty  of  patience  and  compassion, 
that  it  should  desire  him. 

How  sadly  this  view  of  God,  beyond  which 
we  never  get,  save  in  prayer,  belittles  him  to 
our  minds !  He  is  a  Father  full  of  all  those 
thoughts  and  feelings  which  become  a  father's 
heart.  Though  he  is  unchanging  in  his  essence 
and  character,  no  tongue  can  tell  in  how  many 
sweet  ways  he  shows  that  he  is  love.  His 
tender  emotions  are  as  various  as  the  ex- 
perience of  his  children;  and  each  feeling 
that  moves  his  heart  is  the  answer  of  love  to 
some  want,  or  fear,  or  trouble,  or  hope  in  us. 
It  is  by  prayer  that  we  open  our  souls  to  this 


ITS  FRUITS.  91 

fatherliness,  receiving  not  only  the  knowledge  of 
it,  but  the  supreme  blessedness  which  it  gives. 
When  we  have  sinned,  and  our  hearts  condemn 
us,  if  the  penitence  we  feel  be  uttered  in  the 
form  of  a  prayer  for  pardon,  we  shall  find  that 
God  is  merciful  and  gracious.  Our  going  to  him 
and  casting  the  load  of  guilt  down  at  his  feet 
is  met  by  the  assurance  in  our  hearts  that  he 
forgives  sin.  By  praying  amid  calamities  we 
learn  his  compassion.  Telling  him  our  grief,  we 
find  that  he  is  a  sympathizing  Father.  If  we 
go  to  him  in  our  perplexity,  his  infinite  wisdom 
is  the  answer  to  our  need.  When  we 
in  God  faint  by  the  way,  prayer  brings  him  be- 

Il-ers  IT      f*^^®  ^s  ^s  "t^®  ^0^  who  gives  strength 
eachiiu-        ^Q  ^^^  weary.     Amid  our  changes  and 

man  want.  *'  ® 

tossings  to  and  fro,  we  turn  to  him  as 
without  shadow  of  turning.  In  our  weakness 
prayer  reveals  to  us  his  almighty  power.  If 
we  cry  to  him  in  our  trouble,  we  find  him  a  God 
of  comfort.  Flying  to  him  in  our  ignorance,  he 
meets  us  as  the  omniscient  One.  Speaking  to 
him  out  of  our  prosperity,  we  learn  his  loving 
kindness ;  and  in  the  day  of  adversity  he  reveals 


92  PRA  YER, 

himself  to  our  praying  hearts  as  a  chastening 
Father.  His  eternity  is  the  response  to  our 
brief  mortal  life :  the  strength  which  is  in  him 
stands  over  against  the  weakness  in  us ;  our 
humble  and  obscure  lot  carries  us  up  to  the 
glory  in  which  he  dwells ;  the  sentence  of  death 
which  we  receive  in  our  bodies  is  met  by  the 
eternal  life  abiding  in  him.  Thus  it  is  that  our 
souls,  communing  daily  with  God,  are  always 
finding  out  some  new  proof  of  his  infinite  love. 
He  places  us  in  all  kinds  of  allotments 

A  check- 
ered lot  de-     and   experiences  here — successes  and 

sirablc. 

reverses,  joys  and  sorrows,  pleasures 
and  pains  ;  and  then,  as  we  let  the  spirit  of  prayer 
in  us  take  form  according  to  this  mingled  and 
various  life,  one  glory  after  another  in  his  char- 
acter is  turned  out  to  our  view.  The  soul's 
observatory  is  its  place  of  prayer.  Divine  ex- 
cellences, revolving  like  the  stars  in  the  sky,  are 
there  manifested  to  it.  It  sees  the  King  in  his 
beauty.  It  looks  on  the  things  which  are  un- 
seen and  eternal.  The  confusion  of  the  world 
dies  far  below  it,  and  God  comes  into  the  still 
retreat  to  sup  with  it  and  it  with  him. 


ITS  FRUITS.  93 

2.    Another  of  these  fruits   of  prayer   is   the 
strength  it  brings  for  the  labors  to  which  God 
calls   us.     The   most  honored   servants   of  God 
in  all  ages  have  spent  much  time  in 
^vir  prayer.     The  early  patriarchs  loved  to 

ZZn.T  ^^  ^lo^®  ^i^l^  ^od.  That  pastoral  life 
which  they  lived  was  favorable  to  di- 
vine companionship.  They  led  their  flocks  in 
the  grassy  wildernesSj  beside  the  soft-flowing 
streams,  along  the  shady  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tains.    Amid    these    scenes   of   nature 

The    disci- 

puneofthe     they  pitched   their   tents,  and  mused, 

patriarchs. 

and  slept,  sweetly  conversing  with  the 

Father   of  their   spirits.     It  was  this  discipline 

of  prayer  which  fitted  them  to  be  the  founders 

of  the  chosen  nation,  the  receivers  and  keepers 

of  the  covenants  of  promise,  the  seed  from  which 

the  Saviour  of  the  world  should  spring. 

This  loving  walk  with  God  empowered  Moses 

for  his  arduous  mission.     He  was  put- 
Moses.  .  1     p      1  • 
tmg   on   the   needed  strength   lor   his 

work  all  the  time  that  he  kept  the  flocks  of  Jethro 

in  Midian.     In  the  judgment  of  some  critics,  he 

wrote  the  story  of  the  upright  man  of  Uz  dur- 


94  PR  A  YER. 

ing  that  long  retirement.  It  was  the  divine 
life  coming  down  into  his  human  life  which 
prepared  him  to  be  the  leader  of  Israel.  In 
all  his  wanderings  God  gave  him  audience,  re- 
freshed and  enlarged  his  soul,  made  him  strong 
to  meet  Pharaoh,  to  deliver  his  enslaved  people, 
and  to  bear  with  their  slow-heartedness  and  mur- 
raurings.  Elijah  passed  much  of  his  time  with 
God  in  the  caves  and  by  the  brooks  of 
the  desert ;  and  the  fruit  of  that  holy 
fellowship  is  seen  in  his  bold  reproofs  of  Ahab, 
in  his  challenge  to  the  priests  of  Baal,  in  his 
brave  witnessing  against  the  corruptions  of  his 
time.  He  grew  weak,  and  sank  down  into  hope- 
lessness, as  he  missed  the  inspiration  which  came 
to  him  through  his  prayers.  Intercourse  with 
God  gave  to  all  the  saints  of  other  days  power 
for  those  deeds  at  which  we  now  marvel. 
Through  this  blessed  channel  came  their  faith,  by 
which  they  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought 

All  saints.  .  i         •         i  •  j. 

righteousness,  obtained  promises,  stop- 
ped the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  violence 
of  fire,  out  of  weakness  were  made  strong,  waxed 
valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the  armies  of 


ITS  FRUITS.  95 

the  aliens.     Even  our  blessed  Lord  was  in  this 
way  made  stroner  for  his  toils  and  suf- 

Christre-  _  ^       ^ 

freshed  by  ferings.  A  night  of  prayer,  rather  than 
a  night  of  slumber,  was  his  chosen  re- 
freshment. The  mind  unbends  itself  in  this 
holy  exercise.  It  is  a  sweet  relaxation.  It  re- 
news the  youth  of  the  soul.  Our  continuance 
in  well-doing  depends  on  these  refreshings  from 
the  presence  of  God.  The  heart  of  the  Chris- 
tian grows  weary  amid  his  outward  duties.  No 
care  for  the  body  seems  to  help  him  ;  the  source 
of  his  discouragement  is  not  in  the  weakness  of 
the  flesh,  but  in  the  unwilling  spirit.  He  has 
lost  the  deep  sense  of  God's  presence : 

The  refuge 

of  the  and  it  is  only  as  he  raises  his  soul  to 

weary. 

God  in  prayer,  till  God  comes  down 
and  meets  him  anew,  that  the  darkness  gathers 
up  its  folds,  and  his  light  and  peace  return 
to  him.  The  snare  in  which  he  was  caught 
lets  go  its  hold ;  his  feet  are  taken  out  of  the 
miry  clay,  and  set  upon  a  rock ;  the  duties  which 
had  grown  irksome  are  his  joy  again,  and  he 
sees  before  him  a  plain  path.  No  prayerless 
persons   were   ever   full   of  good  works.      The 


96  PRAYER. 

commands  of  God  are  a  weariness  to  all  such, 
hard  sayings  which  they  cannot  hear.  The  Con- 
fessions of  Augustine  show  that  prayer  was  his 
Augustine  ^^^^i  ^'^^  ^^^^  ^^'^  vital  brcatli  failed  as 
and  Luther,  j^^  ccascd  to  pray  J  Luther  was  sure 
to  study  well  only  as  he  had  prayed  well ;  and 
the  feeling  of  every  believing  heart  is  an  amen 
to  these  testimonies. 

But  there  are  duties  for  the  church  no  less 
than  for  the  individual.  These,  requiring  our 
united  action,  will  be  properly  done  only  as 
we  are  together  fitted  for  them  by  union  in 
prayer.  There  would  not  be  much  faltering 
in  the  work  of  the  church  if  its  members  were 
all  the  time  praying  with  one  heart  and  mind. 
This  is  the  royal  way  to  unity  of  action,  such 
action   as    God   never   lets    fail.      The 

The  power 

of  a  pray-     lincs  of  our  influence  are  apt  to  cross 

ing  church.  i       i        t      i  i 

one  another,  and  do  little  more  than 
make  us  all  weak  against  the  common  foe,  while 
we  are  not  drawn  together  to  the  mercy-seat. 
That  is  not  only  the  point  of  view,  but  of  in- 
spiration also,  where  we  are  to  make  ready  for 
the  battle.     As  we  join  in  the    same    prayers, 


ITS  FRUITS.  97 

the  same  life  comes  down  into  all  our  souls. 
That  life,  the  gift  of  our  overliving  Head,  heals 
all  divisions.  The  many  members  are  made  one 
body  by  it.  In  the  consciousness  of  this  unity 
we  can  bring  our  efforts  to  bear  on  a  common 
object;  and  no  Christian  work  is  too  hard  for 
us,  since  God  works  in  us  to  will  and  to  do. 
We  are  not  merely  praying  individuals,  but  a 
praying  church,  and  hence  a  progressive  and 
victorious  church.  Not  merely  one  by  one,  but 
all  together,  we  must  often  climb  the  heights 
of  prayer;  thus  alone  shall  we  bend  our  eyes 
forward  as  the  eye  of  one  man  along  the  way 
of  our  covenant  in  Christ.  On  these  heights  we 
are  above  evil  desires,  and  breathe  that  air  of 
heaven  which  begets  in  us  a  common  zeal.  We 
cannot  too  often  look  thus  away  over  the  field 
on  which  we  are  to  struggle  for  a  common 
triumph.  It  is  the  united  prayers  of  the  church 
in  which  separate  interests  are  forgotten,  and 
Prevents  ^  siuglc  lovo  fills  all  souls,  which  bring 
alienation.  ^^  ghoulder  to  shouldcr  in  the  good 
fight  of  faith,  which  keep  the  blood-bought  rai- 
ment of  our  spirits  clean  and  white,  which  save 
7 


98  PRA  YER. 

us  from  doubt  or  weakness  when  the  battle  is 
hard  against  us.  Whatever  the  work  to  which 
the  members  of  a  church  are  set,  praying  to- 
gether often  as  dear  brethren  and  friends  makes 
them  conscious  of  the  silken  cord  which 

Makes    the 

members        biuds  them  all  to  Christ.     The  burden 

one  in  feel- 
ing and  upon  them  is  light,  however  heavy  in 

itself;  for  it  rests  on  many  shoulders, 
which  prayer  is  making  strong  to  bear  it.  They 
have  God  dwelling  in  them;  hence  their  hands 
are  not  feeble,  neither  do  they  fight  as  one  that 
beateth  the  air.  Every  step  they  take  is  forward 
and  determined,  and  each  blow  struck  for  the 
truth  goes  to  its  mark  with  a  sure  aim  and  a 
resistless  energy. 

3.  One  other  fruit  of  prayer,  which  would 
make  it  our  greatest  blessing  though  it  did 
only  this  for  us,  is  its  ennobling  power  in  the 
soul.     It   is  a  divine    education,  the  school  of 

our   spiritual   nature.     It   unfolds,   en- 

rrayer  en- 
nobles the       larges,    and    refines,  that   in   us   which 

makes   us   the   children  of  God.     The 

prayers   which   we    ofier   come   back    into    our 

souls  bringing  God  with   them.     Thus  we   are 


ITS  FRUITS.  99 

partakers   of  his   holiness,  and   he    changes   us 
into  his  own  image  by  his  indwelling. 

It  is  not  true  that  we  must  needs  be  like 
the  worldly  influences  about  us.  Man  was  made 
to  have  dominion  over  the  world.  But  how 
is  one  to  be  saved  from  sinking  to  the  level  of 
his  earthly  lot?  How  may  he  become  noble 
Our  proper     1^   ^ho   midst   of   mcau    surroundings, 

dominion.  g^j^^j^     ^^^^    ^^^     ^^^^^    ^^^^^     ^^^-j    ^j^^ 

corrupt?  Whence  the  possibility  of  a  Joseph 
in  Egypt,  and  a  Daniel  in  Babylon  ?  Let  us 
look  a  little  at  this.  By  a  well-known  law,  to 
which  the  human  soul  is  subject,  it  grows  to 
be  like  that  with  which  it  is  in  daily  and  lov- 
ing companionship.  If  it  be  wholly  occupied 
with  trivial  things,  it  will  itself  grow  to  be 
meagre  and  trifling.  So  wonderful  are  its  ap- 
titudes that  it  can  shape  itself  to  any  pursuit 
which  it  persistently  follows.  It  can  learn  to 
delight  itself  in  studying  the  most  in- 

Two  oppo- 

sitetenden-     tricato  problcms   of  philosophy ^  or  to 

be  content  with  the  simple  rounds  of 

manual  toil.     There  are  tendencies  in  it  to  which 

it  may  yield  till  drawn  to  the  lowest  level  of 


100  PR^  yER. 

vice  ;  other  tendencies,  which,  if  cherished  and 
followed,  will  bring  it  to  the  summits  of  virtue. 
Now  it  so  happens  in  this  present  life  that  we 
are  exposed  to  many  influences  which  help  the 
tendency  downward.  Much  time  must  be  given 
to  duties  which  do  not  nourish  what  is  noblest 
in  the  soul.  Hence  it  has  ever  been  the  habit 
of  the  wisest  men  to  be  interested  in 

Our  sui*- 

roundings  somo  cnnoblmg  object,  thus  savmg 
J^^down-  themselves  from  the  influence  of  the 
ward  ten-       earthlv  work   which   they   are    set  to 

dency.  ''  '' 

do.  The  wise  merchant,  or  mechanic, 
or  farmer  has  his  books  of  history  and  poetry. 
He  surrounds  himself  with  statues,  paintings, 
A  common  ^^  othor  thiugs  withiu  his  reach,  which 
escape.  minister  to  his  love  of  the  beautiful; 
and  thus  he  unfolds  in  himself  those  finer  powers 
which   his  worldly  business  might  enfeeble  or 

destroy.  Certain  ancient  sages  taught 
pagan  sages     that    God   placed    the    starry   heavens 

where  we  may  behold  them,  to  save 
us  from  the  belittling  influence  of  our  earthly 
life.  We  all  have  felt,  many  times,  the  won- 
derful contrast  between  a  clear   sky   spangled 


ITS  FRUITS.  101 

with  glittering  worlds  above  us,  and  the  scenes 
amid  which  we  are  forced  to  do  our  common 
work.  We  know  from  experience  that  study- 
ing the  stellar  universe  keeps  one  from  the 
narrowing  tendency  of  his  secular  affairs.  He 
who  loves  to  trace  out  the  laws  of  any  province 
in  nature,  who  delights  in  the  creations  of  artis- 
tic genius,  who  cultivates  his  better  qualities 
of  heart  by  Avise  readins:  and  thou2:ht. 

All  noble  *^  ^  *      ^ 

study  saves     who  muscs  much  upon  the  beauty  and 

from  earth- 
ly influ-         order  of  God's  works,  has  a  safeguard 

against  lower  attractions.  His  daily 
toils  may  be  unfriendly  to  the  wants  of  the  soul, 
but  he  is  bound  to  higher  joys  by  a  golden 
chain ;  he  dwells  in  a  serene  life,  to  which  the 
lowering  influence  of  his  employments  cannot 
rise.  He  is  among  them,  but  not  of  them. 
While  trivial  things  keep  his  hands  busy,  great 
thoughts  are  filling  his  soul. 

But  studies  of  this  class  take  time  if  intelli- 
gently carried  on.  They  are  often  incompati- 
ble with  other  claims  upon  us,  or  they  draw 
the  mind  away  into  empty  dreams  which  it 
mistakes  for  truth.     We  cannot  get  the  needed 


102  PRA  YER. 

discipline   in  scientific    studies,  save  by  giving 

to  them  long   and  painful  labor.     Nor 

en"cTn"r'      ^^    ^^®    intellect    which    they    mainly 

open  to         strenorthen    our    noblest    part.      Even 

many.  *-"  ■*• 

aesthetic  studies  may  leave  what  is 
best  in  us  meagre  and  torpid.  It  is  our  spir- 
itual nature,  the  capacity  for  holiness,  which 
makes  us  like  God.     This  is  our  crowning  glory, 

placing:   us   over  all  the  works  which 

Dses  not  ^ 

appeal  to       God   lias   made ;    by   virtue    of  it   we 

what  is  ,  .     .  p 

highest  in       are  his  children.     For  the  trainmg  of 
this  supreme  faculty  he    furnishes  the 
same  blessed  means  to  us  all.     The  laborer  need 
not  turn  aside  from  his  toil  to  find  it.     He  whose 
thoughts    soar   to   the   stars  is  no  nearer   to  it 
than  the  farmer  in  his  garden.     The  gift  is  im- 
partial.     For   our    spiritual    education 
education       ^^^  ^^^^^  "^   liimself     And   he  gives 
possible  to     hiinself  equally  to  all.     We  need  not 
ascend    on    high   to  bring   him   down, 
nor  search  for  him  in  the  depths.     He  is  near 
to  us ;  and  we  enter  into  union  with  him,  and 
grow  divine  in  our  souls,  by  partaking  of  his 
life  as  we    find   him   in   our  prayers.     The  life 


ITS  FRUITS.  103 

of  prayer   is   an   education   which    shames   the 
discipline  of  the  schools. 

If  you  would  make  a  weak  and  vicious  man 
pure,  keep  him  under  the  sway  of  a  strong  right- 
eous man,  and  the  work  is  done.  The  new  at- 
mosphere saves  him ;  the  greater  draws  after 
it  the  less.  It  is  the  weakness  of  our  philan- 
thropy that  we  do  not  lift  up  the  fall- 

"Why  much 

phiianthro-  cu,  scattor  them  one  from  another, 
and  join  them  in  constant  society  with 
ourselves.  We  are  afraid  to  do  this  even  if  we 
would,  or  if  we  could.  The  corrupt  shrink  down- 
ward from  us  as  much  as  we  recoil  upward  from 
them.  We  do  not  meet  each  other  heart  to  heart. 
If  we  could  make  them  feel  that  we  are  indeed 
their  friends,  and  show  ourselves  such,  an  inti- 
macy between  them  and  us  might  spring  up, 
whose  power  would  lift  them  out  of  the  pit.  But 
where  our  love  fails,  that  of  God  is  most  shown. 
He  draws  us  unto  himself     He  is  not  a 

God  would 

bind  us  to     stranger  to  us,  but  our  Father.     He  be- 

himself. 

comes  such  as  we  are,  and  even  takes  on 
him  the  load  of  our  guilt  in  the  person  of  the  Son. 
The  more  sinful  we  feel,  the  readier  are  we  to  fly 


104  PRA  YER. 

to  his  waiting  arms  when  we  see  him  as  he 
is.  Thus  it  is  that  he  lifts  up,  cleanses  and 
blesses,  all  his  children  who  dwell  with  him  in 
the  life  of  prayer.  He  makes  them  his  own 
companions.  His  life,  flowing  down  into  them 
throusrh  this  union,  deepens  that  spirit 

Prayer  the  °  ^  /■  ^ 

golden  of  prayer  in  them  which  they  are  al- 

chain. 

ways  breathing  upward  to  him.  Their 
hearts  grow  around  him  as  the  vine  around  the 
oak,  and  so  he  lifts  them  away  from  grovelling 
things  into  the  sweet  and  pure  air  of  heaven. 
Nothing  else  which  we  can  do  is  so  important 
to  us  as  our  prayers.  They  lay  open  to  us 
that  Mind  in  which  are  all  the  treasures  of 
wisdom  and  knowledge.  They  are  a  high  com- 
munion with  the  Lord  of  lords.  They  attach 
the  tendrils  of  our  better  self  to  a  ladder  whose 
top  is  lost  in  light.  The  more  we  mount  up  in 
our  yearnings,  the  more  are  the  riches  of  the 
divine  nature  disclosed  to  us.  We  may  be 
chained  down  to  the  drudgeries  of  this  world, 
but  in  spirit  we  partake  of  angels'  food.  We 
know  what  the  sage  meant  when  he  said, 
"  The  soul  grows  beautiful  as  it  draws  near  to 


ITS  FRUITS.  105 

God."  Though  dark  in  ourselves,  we  become 
radiant  in  God's  presence,  even  as  clouds  turn 
to  gold  in  the  sunbeams. 

If  such  be  the  fruits  of  prayer  in  the  soul, 

what  must  I  say  in  reply  to  those  who  complain 

that  they  have  been  praying  all  their 

Why  many  ''  l       J       ^ 

are  not         livcs,  and  have  found  no  such  blessed 

blessed  in 

their  fruits?      But    do     those    who     return 

prajers.  empty  in  soul  from  the  mercy- seat 
remember  that  that  may  not  be  prayer  which 
they  so  name  ?  The  mouth  may  be  full  of  be- 
seeching words,  and  the  spirit  have  no  indwell- 
ing of  God.  It  is  when  the  tongue  answers  to 
the  heart  that  we  truly  pray.  If  we  make  many 
prayers  only  because  God  claims  them,  they  will 
be  a  weariness  to  us ;  it  is  while  they  are  the 
voice  of  an  inward  longing  that  they  refresh  the 
soul.  If  we  speak  to  God  from  our  lips,  and  not 
from  the  depths  of  our  hearts,  or  if  we  fail  to 
find  him,  and  merely  pray  into  the  air,  the  re- 
Thesoui  coil  upon  us  will  be  spiritual  death, 
must  pray,  ^^^^^q^  than  life.  It  is  the  open  soul 
that  God  fills.  What  are  all  his  visits  to  the 
man  who  has  not  eyes  to  see  or  ears  to  hear  ? 


106  PRA  YER. 

Let  such  an  one  stand  under  the  canopy  of 
night  when  all  her  hosts  are  shining,  and  the 
still  depths  almost  whisper  their  secret,  yet  to 
him  it  is  no  more  than  ^'  a  foul  and  pestilent 
congregation  of  vapors."  What  is  it  to  him 
though  all  knowledge  and  all  mystery  be  un- 
folded before  him  ?  That  which  makes  the  per- 
ceiving soul  wiser  only  confirms  him  in  his 
ignorance.  It  does  him  no  good  to  walk  through 
2;alleries  of  art,  to  be  told   of  classic 

No  truth  ^ 

blesses  the  agcs,  to  sit  dowu  whcro  prophets  and 
lawgivers  once  sat.  The  blessed  feet 
of  Christ  have  left  no  aroma  for  him  on  Judea's 
plains.  He  is  not  made  better,  but  worse,  by 
contact  with  noble  and  sacred  things.  Great 
influences  seem  to  dwarf  him,  as  the  Alpine 
peasant  is  dwarfed  in  soul  amid  the  sublime 
glories  of  his  mountains.  If  we  do  not  love  what 
is  above  us,  and  long  for  union  with  it,  beholding 
it  will  but  sink  us  to  a  lower  depth.  Just  here, 
I  think,  we  come  upon  the  secret  of  the  evil 
sometimes  charged  against  our  prayers.  We 
are  not  lifted,  and  enlarged,  and  glorified  by 
them  for  the  roason  that  we  do  not  really  pray. 


ITS  FRUITS.  107 

Our  souls  are  not  open  to  God.  Is  it  a  lack  of 
charity  to  say  that  many  prayers  are  an  idle 
pretence,  a  form  of  speech  only,  in  which  the 
soul  comes  not  near  to  God?  The  glories  and 
wonders  of  the  divine  character,  so  far  from 
blessing,  do  but  palsy  the  unwilling  minds  on 
which  they  are  forced.  We  may  pay  a  lip- 
service  gathered  from  the  speech  of  angels, 
fragrant  as  flowers  of  paradise,  glowing  with 
God's  own  breath ;  but  if  we  pray  not  in  spirit, 
it  is  a  vain  oblation.  It  is  not  prayer. 
Our  pray-      ^^  ^^  ^^^  spcak  out  of  a  hune'ering: 

ers  profit-  ■■■  tot) 

less  be-         and  thirsting  soul.     Our  hearts  do  not 

cause  we 

do  not  yearn   to   dwell   in   God,  and   that   he 

thirst  for  t         n     •  i  t      • 

God.  niay  dwell  m  them.     It  is  not  a  form 

of  words  from  which  the  heart  is  left 
out,  but  the  rising  of  an  open  soul  into  an  infi- 
nite Father's  arms,  which  brings  the  fullness 
of  God  into  it,  and  makes  it  holy  as  he  is 
holy. 

Astronomers  say  that  our  planet  and  its  fel- 
low globes,  and  all  other  systems  of  worlds, 
together  with  the  solar  system,  seem  to  revolve 
about  a  single  vast  sphere,  which  is  the  centre 


108  PRAYER. 

of  the  universe  of  matter.  Whether  such  in- 
deed be  the  truth  or  not.  we  may  never  find  out 
in  this  life  ;  but  we  know  surely  that  all  the 
countless  host  of  minds  does  revolve  about  one 
infinite  and  all- sustaining  Father.  From  him  an 
energy  goes  out  which  is  able  to  hold  and  for- 
ever guide   in    safety  each   individual 

The  source 

of  all  spirit-  of  that  host.  Tliis  mighty  influence, 
if  we  but  open  our  hearts  to  it,  will 
touch  a  sympathetic  chord  in  us,  and  bring  us 
into  fellowship  with  God.  If  that  divine  beam 
has  already  touched  our  souls,  let  us  keep  them 
open  to  its  larger  incoming.  Let  us  cherish 
every  yearning  we  feel  for  the  radiant  centre 
from  which  it  springs.  Yielding  to  the  blessed 
One  who  so  sweetly  draws  us,  let  us  live  in  his 
light,  and  receive  of  his  life  into  ours,  till  he 
renews  in  us  his  own  likeness.  Thus  shall  we 
secure  a  safe  orbit  to  our  souls  for  all  the  future. 
They  shall  not  perish  or  fall  away  into  darkness 
when  they  pass  out  of  the  horizon  of  time,  but 
be  as  stars  in  another  firmament,  where  they 
shall  shine  forever. 


ITS  POWER.  109 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    POWER   OF    PRAYER. 

No  thoughtful  person  will  deny  the  ennobling 
influence  of  a  life  of  prayer.  Even  atheists 
have  said  that  praying  is  the  highest  act  .of 
the  soul.  But  when  we  speak  of  prayer  as  a 
procuring  power,  operating  outside  of  ourselves 
Aprocur-  ^o  obtaiu  blcssings  which  otherwise 
mg  force.  ^ould  not  comc,  many  are  inclined  to 
doubt.  Do  our  prayers  reach  beyond  the  fixed 
course  of  nature,  and  move  the  arm  of  God  to 
interpose  for  us  ? 

This  is  the  question,  which  we  answer  with 
a  hearty  ^'  yes,"  while  those  who  look  at  it  from 
grounds  of  science  alone  are  tempted  to  say  "  no.'' 
The  following  is  a  specimen  of  the  tests  they  have 
offered  to  settle  the  dispute :  Let  part  of  the 
patients  in  a  hospital  where  all  are  treated  alike 


110  PRAYER. 

have  the  prayers  of  Christians  for  their  return 
to  health,  and  if  those  prayed  for  get  well  while 
many  of  the  others  do  not,  the  power  of  prayer 
A  worth-  ^'^  ^®  shown.  Our  sceptical  friends 
less  test.  ^^-ji  ^i^gn  admit,  they  say,  that  prayer 
may  bring  a  supernatural  force  to  bear  which 
is  effectual  where  natural  means  fail.  We  may 
doubt,  however,  whether  they  would  keep  their 
promise  to  believe,  even  if  the  experiment  they 
propose  were  made.  Denying  the  eflScacy  of 
prayer  in  the  outset,  they  would  say,  in  view 
of  its  effects,  that  the  result  was  due  to  some 
subtile  cause  or  agency  of  nature  which  had 
been  overlooked.  As  an  umpire  between  nat- 
uralism and  supernaturalism,  the  test  is  therefore 
worthless.  The  man  of  science  and  the  man 
of  faith  will  each  view  the  case  from  his  own 
position,  and  hence  each  will  be  confirmed  in 
what  he  already  believes.  It  is  because  the  ex- 
periment would  be  futile  that  the  proposal  of 
it  seems  to  us  disingenuous.  Our  faith  in  the 
power  of  prayer  is  too  sacred  a  thing  to  be 
thus  rudely  mocked. 

This   offensive   challenge   is   often   invited,   I 


ITS  POWER.  Ill 

admit,  by  the  unwise  utterances  of  a  class  of 
Christians.  A  proposal  to  test  the  value  of 
our  prayers  by  scientific  methods  is  hardly  more 
irreverent  than  what  we  sometimes  hear  on  the 
other  side.  To  affirm  that  God  will  give  us  any- 
thing we  ask  him  for,  as  is  sometimes  hastily  and 
thoughtlessly  done  by  ignorant  exhorters,  car- 
ries a  painful  shock  to  the  intelligent  and  devout 
soul.     Only   those    who   know   nothing 

Thechal-  *^  _  ^ 

lenge  pro-  yet  as  they  ought  to  know  will  ven- 
ture  to  speak  of  God  as  if  they  under- 
stood him  altogether.  They  have  yet  to  learn 
what  it  is  to  say  from  the  heart,  "  Thy  will  be 
done."  The  man  who  says  that  when  he  wants 
money  Ike  kneels  down  and  prays,  and  then  goes 
to  the  post  office  and  finds  it  enclosed  to  him 
in  a  letter,  must  be  a  very  godly  man  not  to 
seem  irreverent ;  we  must  know  him  to  be  in- 
capable of  anything  which  is  not  the  exact  truth, 
or  we  shall  suspect  him  of  some  effort  before- 
hand, some  very  strong  appeal  made  in  some 
way  to  persons  of  known  charity,  which  is  really 
the  procuring  cause  of  the  answer  to  his  prayer. 
Do  the  good  men  who  profess  to  believe  that 


112  PRAYER. 

God  supplies  their  daily  needs  because  of  their 
prayers  alone  acknowledge  as  frankly  as  they 
should  what  pains  they  take  to  acquaint  the 
Christian  public  with  their  wants?  If  any  are 
tempted  thus  to  belittle  the  doctrine  of  the 
efficacy  of  prayer,  and  to  mingle  artifice  with 
their  faith  in  order  to  bear  themselves  out,  it 
may  be  well  for  their  sake  that  some  gauge 
or  test  out  of  that  realm  of  natural  agencies 
to  which  they  affect  indifference  should  from 
time  to  time  be  proposed.  But  if  scientific  tests 
of  prayer  attempt  a  higher  range,  if  they  imply 
doubts  as  to  its  full  and  complete  power  with 
God  when  offered  in  a  proper  spirit,  they  are 
wholly  out  of  place.  The  question  is  one  which 
they  cannot  touch;  for  the  world  of  prayer  is 
wholly  above  the  world  of  science,  nor  can  the 
methods  of  one  ever  be  inferred  from  those  of 
the  other. 

The  Bible  teaches  us  to  regard  as  impious 
those  who  would  apply  a  test  from  the  realm 
of  nature  to  a  purely  spiritual  force.  Who  ever 
doubted  the  propriety  of  what  Christ  said  when 
he   was   tempted   in    the   wilderness  ?     Yet  his 


ITS  POWER.  113 

replies  there  given  to  his  adversary  put  this 
whole  subject  in  its  true  light.  He  would  not 
command  the  stones  to  be  made  bread.  He 
would  not  cast  himself  down  from  a  pinnacle 
of  the  temple.  His  power  to  work  miracles 
was  given  to  him  for  high  spiritual  ends^  and 
he  would  not  idly  subject  it  to  the  trial  of  natural 
rmpietyof  ^^^'  He  would  uot  degrade  and  pro- 
naturaiism.  £^^^  -^  ^^j  usiug  it  to  plcaso  au  cuomy 
who  was  seeking  to  destroy  him.  Do  those 
doubters  who  ask  for  scientific  proofs  of  the 
power  of  prayer  consider  who  their  chief  fore- 
runner was?  As  Christ  met  him  we  must  meet 
them.  They^  no  less  than  he,  pervert  the  doc- 
trine of  the  supernatural  which  the  efficacy  of 
prayer  involves.  Let  them  read  the  story  of 
the  temptation.  It  most  remarkably  anticipates 
their  proposal.  They  wish  us,  who  believe  that 
prayer  moves  the  divine  arm,  to  do  essentially 
what  the  tempter  asked  Christ  to  do.  They 
seek  in  our  case,  as  he  did  in  our  Lord's,  to 
gauge  the  power  which  we  have  with  God. 
The  control  of  God  over  nature,  which  he  exerts 
in  response  to  the  prayers  of  his  people,  is  for 
8 


114  PRAYER. 

high  and  spiritual  ends.  We  do  not  wish  him 
to  show  it,  at  the  demand  of  his  enemies,  to 
gratify  a  mere  scientific  spirit  or  please  ob- 
stinate doubters.  This  mighty  power  is  sacred. 
God  uses  it  only  for  his  own  glory  and  the  good 
of  his  children.  They  have  no  part  in  it  who 
would  make  it  bow  to  the  idols  of  science.  To 
pra}^  for  the  recovery  of  the  sick,  with  a  view  to 
putting  God's  power  to  the  test,  is  to  be  utterly 
without  the  spirit  of  prayer.  Prayer  is  no  form 
of  words  used  for  experiment.  Whoever  comes 
to  God  must  believe  that  he  is  the  rewarder  of 
them  that  seek  him.  We  are  asked  to  pray  for 
a  given  object  in  that  doubting  spirit  which 
makes   prayer   impossible. 

The  temptation  of  Christ  in  the  wilderness 
is  not  the  only  case  in  point.  We  read  of  cer- 
tain Scribes  and  Pharisees  who  came  to  Christ 
and  said,  "Master,  we  would  seek  a  sign  of 
Doubt  re-  tliec."  They  had  no  faith  in  our  Lord's 
peiied.  Messiahship,  or  in  his  divine  power,  but 

doubted,  and  wished  to  put  him  to  the  test. 
They  were  not  open  to  conviction.  If  he  should 
cast  out  devils,  they  would  say  that  he  did  it 


ITS  POWER.  115 

through  the  prince  of  devils.  Hence  he  declined 
their  proposal ;  did  not  give  that  which  is  holy 
unto  dogs,  or  cast  his  pearls  before  swine.  His 
answer  to  them  was  essentially  the  same  as  to 
his  great  adversary  —  "An  evil  and  adulterous 
generation  seeketh  after  a  sign ;  and  there  shall 
no  sign  be  given  it."  The  power  of  prayer 
being  supernatural,  we  can  never  prove  it  by 
scientific  tests,  or  to  those  who  admit  only 
natural  causes. 

There  is,  then,  a  spirit  in  those  who  would 
move  God  by  their  prayers  which  is  indispensa- 
ble to  success.  If  we  have  not  that  spirit  we 
cannot  pray  as  God  requires ;  and  it  is  only  as 
we  thus  pray  that  he  has  promised  to  hear  us. 
He  has  not  promised  to  hear  doubters,  or  those 
who  try  him  with  the  methods  of  unbe- 

The  spirit  , 

which  God  lief.  How  can  we  meet  the  challenge 
to  pray  if  the  terms  of  the  challenge  do 
not  permit  us  to  have  the  spirit  of  prayer  ?  Look 
as  carefully  as  we  will  through  the  Scriptures, 
and  we  shall  find  no  promise  of  divine  aid  in 
answer  to  our  prayers  which  is  not  conditioned 
upon  a  right  spirit  in  us.     Where  has  God  en- 


116  PRAYER. 

couraged  the  doubting  heart  to  put  him  to  the 
proof?  Though  he  sometimes  pleads  with  his 
people  as  if  he  were  a  man,  he  has  not  said  that 
the  soul  which  tempts  him  shall  be  heard.  "  All 
things  whatsoever  ye  ask  helieving,  ye  shall 
receive/'  are  Christ's  words.  Here  is  no  prom- 
ise that  God  will  answer  our  prayers  just  to 
prove  to  us  that  he  can;  that  he  will  hear  us 
irrespective  of  the  feeling  in  which  we  come 
to  him.  True  discipleship  on  our  part  is  as- 
sumed. It  was  to  his  own  friends  and  followers 
that  Christ  spoke.  Nor  did  he  make  the  great 
promise  indiscriminately  even  to  these.  Only  as 
their  souls  were  in  a  believing  frame,  knit  to 
God  in  a  perfect  oneness  of  will  and  desire, 
could  they  offer  the  eflfectual  prayer  of  the 
righteous  man.  This  was  the  grand  feature 
in  our  Lord's  own  prayers.  He  and  his  Fa- 
ther were  one,  and  he  came  to  do  that  Father's 
will.  It  was  from  this  point  of  view  that  he 
looked  at  his  sufferings;  and  his  prayer  was 
heard  in  its  true  intent,  though  the  cup  from 
which  his  sensitive  nature  shrunk  did  not  pass 
from  him.     No  true  child  of  God,  no  one  whom 


ITS  POWER,  117 

God  has  promised  to  hear,  prays  for  what  is 
contrary  to  the  will  of  God  ;  those  objects  which 
seem  to  him  desirable,  but  concerning  which  the 
divine  purpose  is  not  clear,  he  prays  for  only 
as  Christ  prayed  for  deliverance  in  the  garden. 
"When  our  wills  are  in  perfect  accord  with  the 
will  of  God,  and  we  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight,  — 
when  we  long  for  only  those  things  which  are  in 
the  purpose  of  God,  and  are  toiling  for  them  as 
our  supreme  object  in  life,  —  we  have  that  state 
of  mind  which  alone  can  pray  in  the  truest  sense, 
and  all  that  we  pray  for  will  be  granted  us. 

If  any  say  that  the  objects  of  such  praying  are 
sure  to  be  granted  whether  we  pray  for  them 
or  not,  since  God  will  surely  do  all  that  he  has 
purposed,  the  objection  is  valid  so  far  as  it  goes. 
But  it  does  not  prove  that  our  prayers  are  need- 
less ;  it  is  no  cause  for  omitting  to  pray.     Things 

which  are  the  same  in  themselves,  or 
thingsTif-  ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^0^  is  concerned,  are  differ- 
ferentto        ^^^  Iq  ^g  accordiug  to   the   frame  of 

spirit  in  which  we  receive  them.  If 
we  have  brought  ourselves  into  union  with  God 
by  praying  for  them,  they  will  come  to  us  as 


118  PRAYER. 

blessings  ;  but  if  a  prayerless  life  has  separated 
between  us  and  him,  so  that  our  deepest  yearn- 
ing is  not  for  what  he  may  please  to  send  us, 
none  of  his  dealings  with  us  will  have  in  them 
the  blessed  savor  of  answers  to  prayer:  be  they 
according  to  our  natural  wishes  or  against  them, 
in  either  case  our  hearts  w^ill  be  left  empty  and 
wretched.  Whoever  offers  the  prayer  which 
God  always  hears,  can  put  his  whole  heart  into 
this  brief  sentence  :  ''  Thy  will  be  done."  There 
All  prayers  ^^  ^^  form  of  praycr  possible  to  him 
but  one.  which  docs  not  grow  out  of  this  one 
petition.  When  our  souls  are  renewed,  cleansed, 
and  sanctified,  —  when  the  great  work  for  which 
Christ  came  absorbs  our  time  and  energies,  and 
is  the  source  of  our  fondest  hopes  —  it  can  be  no 
small  or  temporal  thing  which  we  shall  long  for 
in  our  prayers.  All  the  things  which  we  most 
desire  will  be  a  part  of  the  unfolding  counsels 
of  God ;  and  the  same  events  which  are  a  curs- 
ing to  such  as  lack  this  desire,  will  crown  our 
lives  with  blessing.  Only  those  who  pray  for 
the  reign  of  Christ  will  have  eyes  to  see  him 
when  he  comes   in   his   kingdom.     Their   souls 


ITS  POWER.  119 

shall  be  awake,  and  they  shall  rejoice  as  those 
who  never  pray  cannot,  knowing  what  is  meant 
when  the  floods  clap  their  hands. 

In  arguing  that  prayer  has  power  with  God,  I 
make  no  use  of  what  are  to  my  own  mind,  and 
I  doubt  not  to  all  Christians,  the  sweetest  proofs 
of  such  power.  We  could  fill  volumes  out  of  our 
experience  —  all  kinds  of  exigencies  and  trials, 
some  temporal,  others  spiritual  —  in  which  we  had 
blessed  witness  that  our  prayers  were  heard. 
No  Christian  who  has  passed  througli  times  of 
religious  awakening,  who  has  seen  the  various 
enterprises  of  the  church  saved  out  of  great 
perils,  who  has  longed  for  the  souls  of  wicked 
companions,  who  has  had  dear  friends  given  back 
Christian  ^^  ^^^  ^^^  of  tlic  sidcs  of  the  gravc, 
experience.  ^^^13^3  ^hat  praycr  movcs  the  arm  of 
God.  He  is  sure  that  God  has  respect  unto  the 
humble,  and  does  not  despise  their  prayer.  The 
history  of  the  church  and  Christian  biography 
are  a  great  treasure-house  of  proofs  that  prayer 
has  this  blessed  power.  But  they  are  proofs 
whose  force  many  do  not  feel.  They  are  the 
paradise   of   the    praying   soul   whose    flowery 


120  PRAYER. 

walks  the  foot  of  doubt  will  trample,  if  admitted 
too  freely  among  them.  We  go  out  of  the 
enclosure,  where  we  see  the  victories  of  prayer 
blossoming  all  about  us,  and  seek  some  common 
ground,  if  any  be  not  able  to  enter  into  our 
faith. 

Consider  what  men  do  when  they  deny  that 
God  is  moved  by  our  prayers.  They  imply  that 
God  is  not  sincere  in  many  of  his  sweetest 
promises  and  assurances.  On  what  page  of  the 
Bible  do  we  not  find  some  intimation 
lows  if*''  ^^^^  ^®  is  ^  prayer-answering  God? 
prayer  has     rpj^^    expHcit    declarations   that   he   is 

no  force.  ^ 

such  a  God  are  almost  without  num- 
ber. Not  only  are  they  thus  numerous;  they 
are  the  sweetest  words  in  all  Scripture.  Our 
souls  feel  the  benediction  when  we  hear  Christ 
say,  ^'  Enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast 
shut  the  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  which  is  in 
secret,  and  thy  Father  which  seeth  in  secret 
shall  reward  thee  openly.*'  No  gainsayings  or 
criticisms  of  unbelief  can  ever  spoil  the  aroma 
of  the  words,  "  If  ye,  then,  being  evil,  know  how 
to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much 


ITS  POWER.  121 

more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  give 
Promises  of  g^od  tilings  to  them  that  ask  him!" 
^°'^'  Take  out  of  the  Bible  all  those  words 

which  teach  that  prayer  obtains  blessings  from 
God,  and  what  remains  would  be  a  firmament 
without  its  stars.  And  while  we  see  them  all 
clustered  there,  shining  in  beauty  on  every 
page,  what  follows  if  they  have  no  meaning  ? 
Who  is  this  that  makes  God  a  deceiver?  Far 
from  us  be  such  a  thought.  God  is  true,  and 
therefore  he  hears  prayer.  The  Strength  of 
Israel  cannot  lie ;  and  hence  are  they  indeed 
stars,  and  not  empty  meteors,  which  make  lu- 
minous his  holy  book.  It  is  impossible  that  he 
should  ever  say,  •'  Seek  ye  my  face  in  vain." 

But  the  impulse  to  pray,  which  is  in  all  men, 
witnesses,  no  less  than  the  Bible,  to   God's  re- 
gard for  our  prayers.     If  our  prayers  were  never 
heard,  yet  all  men  are  so  made  that  they  will  and 
must  pray.    'By  a  necessitv  of  his  na- 

Xatural  l       j  j  . 

impulse  to      ture  ovcry  one  has  the  praying  instinct. 

Not  only  is  prayer  the  vital  breath  of 

the   Christian  ;  it  is  the  spontaneous  cry  of  all 

human  hearts.     That  is  a  good  definition  of  man 


122  PRAYER. 

which  describes  him  as  the  creature  who  prays. 
Even  the  profane  oaths  which  we  hear  from 
angry  men  on  the  streets  are  degenerate  prayers. 
They  show  how  far  the  praying  instinct  in  us 
rrofane  ^^J  ^^-U  if  Suffered  to  come  under  the 
prayers.  power  of  siu.  Mcu  are  never  so  lost 
as  not  to  cry  unto  God,  and  beseech  his  help, 
though  only  in  this  blind  and  shocking  way. 
Let  that  impulse  be  delivered  from  the  bondage 
of  sin;  let  Christ  be  formed  within  it,  and 
breathe  his  holy  life  through  it,  and  those  same 
men,  instead  of  degrading  it  as  they  now  do, 
would  pray  the  prayers  of  an  Elijah,  a  Stephen, 
or  a  Paul.  We  need  have  no  fear  that  any 
doubts  of  science,  or  cavil  and  ridicule  of  what- 
ever kind,  will  drive  prayer  out  of  the  world. 
Men  will  continue  to  pray  as  long  as  their  hu- 
manity is  in  them.  Nature  triumphs  over  those 
who  make  a  show  of  disdain ;  for  she  forces  even 
them,  in  times  of  great  distress  or  sudden  an- 
guish, to  cry  out  for  the  living  God. 

But  what  follows  if  there  be  no  dear  Father 
who  hears  and  answers  prayer?  All  must  see 
what  the  inference  is,  —  the  same  as  from  the 


ITS  POWER.  123 

promises  of  the  Bible.  It  follows  that  our  God 
God  not  a  ^^^^  played  us  false,  that  he  breaks  to 
a  deceiver.  ^^^  hopo  the  loviiig  words  he  compels 
our  hearts  to  speak.  Our  whole  life  is  thus 
made  a  poor  mockery,  the  vainest  of  delusions, 
the  most  utter  and  pitiless  deception  that  was 
ever  contrived.  Our  nature  is  all  the  time 
forcing  us  to  do  what  is  at  bottom  a  lie.  God 
has  so  made  us  that  we  are  ever  asking  him  for 
what  he  never  grants.  Such  is  the  theory,  and 
we  see  that  it  represents  God  as  deceiving  us  at 
the  centre  of  the  soul.  The  same  faith  which 
makes  good  to  us  what  is  most  sacred  in  our 
own  hearts  confirms  to  us  the  scriptural  doctrine 
of  the  power  of  prayer.  If  we  would  have  any 
consolation,  if  we  would  trust  our  own  instincts, 
or  lay  any  basis  of  trust  one  towards  another,  we 
must  believe  that  God  is  moved  by  prayer.  He 
does  not  mock  us  with  a  stone,  but  gives  us  the 
bread  we  ask  when  our  spirits  cry  out  of  their 
hunger  to  him. 

We  are  also  to  remember  that  our  prayers 
avail  with  God,  or  the  noblest  culture  of  our 
lives  is  the  fruit  of  a  deception.     Not  only  are 


124  PRAYER. 

we  forced  to  pray,  but  we  acquaint  ourselves 
with  God,  and  are  lifted  up  and  enno- 
cu"2rnot  bled  in  all  our  faculties  by  a  life  of 
fraud"*  prayer.  Can  it  be  that  the  offering 
which  does  so  much  for  us  is  a  vain 
oblation?  Is  it  rational  to  hold  that  we  must 
put  ourselves  under  the  shadow  of  a  religious 
fraud,  and  pray  all  our  days  as  if  God  heard  us, 
though  our  words  are  only  beating  the  air,  in 
order  that  we  may  reach  the  highest  manhood  or 
womanhood  possible  to  us  ?  If  prayer  be  indis- 
pensable to  our  best  training,  if  no  one  can  af- 
ford to  neglect  it,  then  must  it  have  power  with 
God ;  for  men  will  not  practise  it  while  per- 
suaded that  it  lacks  this  power;  or  if  they  do, 
it  is  a  kind  of  self-imposition,  abhorrent  to  rea- 
son, the  tendency  of  which  must  be  to  make 
them,  not  better,  but  worse. 

The  conclusion  to  which  reason  drives  us, 
then,  is,  that  all  true  prayers  do  move  the  will 
of  God.  He  answers  them,  though  not  always 
in  such  ways  as  our  partial  wisdom  might  prefer. 
God  chooses  the  form  of  the  answer,  and  so  far 
as  it  differs  from  our  present  wish  it  is  some- 


ITS  POWER,  125 

thing    higher    and    better.     His    thoughts    are 

above  our  thoughts  while  bestowing  his  favors 

upon  us.     He  withholds  the  imperfect 

answer         that  he  may  give  the  perfect.     It  does 

often  better 

than  the  not  cutcr  iuto  our  hearts  how  great 
things  he  prepares  for  us.  If  w-e  dwelt 
in  him  and  he  in  us,  and  our  souls  were  fully 
conscious  of  such  indwelling,  we  should  see  that 
he  more  than  grants  all  our  petitions  ;  that  which 
we  in  our  blindness  deem  a  withholding  of  bless- 
ing would  be  to  our  opened  eyes  what  we  ask 
for,  not  stinted  in  measure,  but  shaken  together 
and  running  over.  In  the  Lord's  prayer  is  the 
petition,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 
Many  of  God's  poor  have  offered  that  prayer  in 
the  morning,  and  laid  their  aching  heads  down  at 
night  with  no  morsel  to  relieve  bodily  hunger. 
But  was  the  prayer  unanswered  ?  Far 
from  it.  Tell  them  it  was  not,  and  they 
will  not  believe  you.  They  will  keep  on  offering 
that  prayer,  soothed  by  it  in  some  wonderful  man- 
ner, having  answer  to  it  all  the  time  in  their  souls, 
even  while  common  food  is  denied  them.  We 
forget,  in  our  doubts  upon  this  subject,  that  man 


A  common 
case. 


126  PRA  YER. 

liveth  not  by  bread  alone.  We  too  often  choose 
the  lower  form ;  it  is  well  for  us  sometimes  that 
God  chooses  only  the  higher  form  in  which  to 
answer  our  prayers.  David  said,  ^^  The  Lord  is 
my  shepherd;  I  shall  not  want."     But 

David. 

if  his  comfort  depended  wholly  on  tem- 
poral things,  he  did  not  speak  the  truth ;  for  he 
was  afterwards  brought  down  more  than  once 
into  great  straits  of  worldly  misfortune.  Only 
so  far  as  he  was  a  man  after  God's  own  heart, 
longing  for  spiritual  blessings,  keeping  his  will 
in  accord  with  the  divine  will,  did  his  cup  over- 
flow, and  none  of  his  hope  perish.  The  prayer 
of  St.  Paul  for  the  removal  of  the  thorn 
in  his  flesh  was  answered,  beyond  his 
thought,  in  the  words,  ^'  My  grace  is  sufficient 
for  thee."  Our  blessed  Lord  was  once  faint,  and 
sat  thus  by  the  well  while  his  disciples  were 
gone  away  to  buy  meat.  Yet  when  they  re- 
turned with  food,  he  gave  them  to  understand 
that  he  had  already  eaten.  But  no  one 
had  supplied  him  with  physical  suste- 
nance. Then  he  announced  to  his  wondering 
friends  the  great  truth  that  there  are  spiritual 


Christ  at 
the  well. 


ITS  POWER.  127 

supplies  for  our  wants  with  which  no  temporal 
supplies  are  worthy  to  he  compared :  "  I  have 
meat  to  eat  that  ye  know  not  of.  My  meat  is  to 
do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me,  and  to  finish  his 
work." 

We  conclude,  therefore,  that  all  true  prayers 
are  answered ;  that  they  are  answered  as  to  the 
substance  of  their  meaning,  and  in  ways  which 
would  more  than  meet  our  largest  expectation 
were  we  able  to  see  just  what  is  involved  in  the 
fulfilment  of  that  divine  will  to  which  we  have 
resigned  ourselves.  The  agreement  of  desire 
between  God  and  the  believer  who  truly  prays 
is  such  that  God  is  said  to  pray  in  the  believer. 
The  fervent,  effectual  prayer  of  the  righteous 
man  is  an  ''  inwrought  prayer.'*  The  prepara- 
tion of  the  heart  is  from  him  who  grants 
^^^ugM  *^^®  heart's  petition.  The  Spirit  help- 
fecTa^^'  ^^^  ^^^^'  infirmities;  they  are  his  groan- 
ings  which  we  cannot  utter  when  we 
find  our  souls  burdened  with  a  longing  for  some 
spiritual  good.  God  worketh  in  us  to  will  and 
to  do ;  and  hence  in  hearing  our  prayers  he  ful- 
fils his  own  pleasure.     Christ  formed  within  our 


128  PRAYER. 

hearts  by  faith,  is,  in  the  prayer  we  offer,  inter- 
ceding for  us  before  the  throne.  Him  the  Fa- 
ther heareth  always.  He  presents  the  golden 
vials  from  which  the  sweet  incense  is  ever  ris- 
ing. He  in  whom  we  live  is  one  with  the  Fa- 
ther ;  and  his  prayer  must  be  heard,  since  God 
cannot  deny  himself 

Not  only  are  the  prayers  we  thus  offer  all 
answered,  but  many  of  them  are  so  answered 
as  to  compel  men,  even  in  this  life,  to  see  the 
interposition  of  God.  Far  be  it  from  me  to 
preach  the  cold  doctrine  that  we  are  not  to 
expect  answers  to  our  prayers  in  the  forms  we 
now  choose  for  them.  The  divine  agency  is 
still  concerned  in  carrying  forward  the  work  of 
redemption.  The  renewal  of  a  soul  by  the  in- 
fluences of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  supernatural 
event ;  and  the  keeping  of  that  soul  all  along 
the  hard  and  steep  path  of  sanctification  is  a 
process  which  calls  for  the  divine  co-working. 
No  one  has  lived  long  in  the  world  without  be- 
ing forced  to  see  some  of  those  special  provi- 
dences which  he  cannot  but  regard  as  forth- 
puttings    of  the    finger   of  God.     In  this  same 


ITS  POWER.  129 

catalogue  of  gracious  wonders  belong  all  those 

answers  to  our   prayers   which  are  in 

S'^ur^thlt     ^^  precise  form  of  our  present  wish. 

he  hears        Thcv  make  luminous  the  experience  of 

prayer.  ''  ^ 

every  Christian.  They  encourage  us 
to  ask  for  specific  objects — the  conversion  of 
particular  persons^  the  turning  aside  from  us  of 
impending  evils,  the  sparing  of  lives  which  we 
hold  dear,  and  on  which  Death  seems  to  be  fixing 
his  grasp.  How  many  such  prayers  have  been 
answered,  thus  strengthening  the  natural  im- 
pulse to  offer  them  !  And  they  will  continue  to 
be  offered,  whether  answered  or  not,  in  the  form 

of  our  first  wish,  so  long  as  men  are 

Our  exact 

wish  some-  men,  and  we  find  ourselves  crushed 
down  by  sudden  sorrows,  or  in  the 
presence  of  unforeseen  dangers.  We  are  sure 
that  there  must  be  One  who  careth  for  us  when 
we  cease  to  be  able  to  care  for  ourselves.  There 
is  comfort,  there  is  hope ;  our  foreboding  hearts 
may  take  courage,  for  we  are  not  alone,  but  He 
who  heareth  and  answereth  prayer  is  with  us. 
Take  this  consolation  away  from  us,  and  who 
would  have  any  strength  left  to  struggle  longer  ? 
9 


130  PRA  YER. 

Who  would  not  fall  by  the  way,  and  lie  prostrate 
in  hopelessness,  saying,  like  the  disheartened 
prophet,  "It  is  enough,  Lord;  and  now,  if  it 
please  thee,  I  beseech  thee  take  away  my  life  "? 
God  has  given  his  people  no  occasion  to  pray 
this  mournful  prayer.  Oftentimes  has  he  heard 
them  in  the  precise  manner  of  their  wish,  some- 
times bearing  long  with  them,  at  other  times 
appearing  with  his  aid  while  they  were  yet 
speaking,  or  even  preventing  them  with  the 
blessings  of  his  goodness.  The  last  weapon  we 
The  last  '^^  ever  yield  is  the  power  to  pray. 
resort.  When  all  other  hope  fails,  we  may  cry 

out  to  God  for  help.  There  is  that  in  us  which 
declares  that  it  can  brighten  the  clouds  of  adver- 
sity. No  cavils  of  unbelief,  no  delays  of  divine 
succor,  will  ever  make  us  doubt  that  in  the 
spirit  of  prayer  we  may  encounter  every  evil. 
It  is  able  to  disarm  Death  of  his  terrors.  It 
causes  the  gates  of  the  city  of  gold  to  open 
before  our  weary  feet. 

Not  only,  then,  is  it  impossible  that  we  should 
not  keep  on  praying,  but  all  our  right  requests 
are  granted,  either  in  the  form  we  wish  or  in 


ITS   POWER.  131 

some  way  divinely  chosen  for  us,  which  is  far 
higher  and  better.  Since  God  is  love,  and  has 
made  us  praying  creatures,  we  resign  to  his 
wisdom  all  those  interests  concerning  which  he 
does  not  as  yet  seem  to  hear  us.  We  know 
that  he  does  hear  us,  so  far  as  we  have 

Our  hope 

often  ex-  a  praycrful  spirit  in  our  praying.  He 
has  given  us  many  proofs  that  we  seek 
not  his  face  in  vain,  and  the  proofs  which  are  up 
to  this  time  withholden  shall  be  given  us  hereaf- 
ter. Not  only  do  the  past  and  present  belong 
to  us  under  God,  but  the  future  is  ours  also. 

Bereaved   one,   the    little   life   which  was    so 

precious  to  you,  and  for  which  you  prayed  so 

earnestly  that  it  might  still  gladden  and  fill  your 

mother's  heart,  has  not  been  taken  from 

The  be- 
reaved you  in  rude  mockery  of  your  trust.     He 

who  fulfilled  the  great  wish  of  his  Son, 
making  him  victorious  over  sin,  though  not  hear- 
ing his  prayer  to  be  delivered  from  the  cross, 
will  sustain  your  sinking  spirit.  Walking  with 
God  in  quietness,  your  will  resigned  to  his,  and 
your  eye  open  to  see  the  unfolding  of  his  fatherly 
counsels,   you   shall   have    songs   in   the   night. 


132  PRAYER. 

Yea,  it  sliall  come  to  pass  in  your  evening  time 
that  it  sliall  be  light.  And  when  you  clasp  your 
treasure  once  more,  in  the  place  where  it  is  laid 
up  for  you,  you  will  wonder  that  you  were  ever 
tempted  to  think  your  prayers  unheard  of  God, 
while  you  are  pouring  forth  the  notes  of  praise 
to  his  goodness,  who  planned  your  life  with  all 
its  changes  precisely  as  was  needed,  that  your 
joy  and  blessedness  in  his  presence  might  be 
complete.  When  the  elders  of  the  church  are 
called,  and  pray  over  the  sick,  the  prayer  of  faith 
does  save  the  sufferers.  It  may  not  save  them 
in  the  poor  sense  of  prolonging  this  earthly  life 
in  the  flesh ;  such  miraculous  interpo- 
sitions, needed  in  the  infancy  of  the 
church,  may  be  withheld  in  our  day :  the  world 
is  older  now,  and  should  not  require  to  be  per- 
suaded of  the  divine  mission  of  Christianity  by 
such  means  ;  but  that  pra3^er,  even  though  un- 
answered to  our  sight,  does  nevertheless  accom- 
plish all  that  our  faith  can  wish.  We  shall  see, 
when  we  no  longer  see  through  a  glass  darkly, 
that  God  has  answered  our  prayers  in  ways  in- 
finitely better  for  us  than  our  slow  hearts  prefer- 


ITS  POWER.  133 

red.  We  shall  know,  knowing  as  we  are  known, 
that  the  life  of  unanswered  prayers  for  us  would 
Our  lot  in  have  been  the  life  which  we  in  our 
^'^^'  weakness  chose,  but  which  God,  with  a 

view  to  fulfilling  all  our  desire,  did  not  deal  out 
to  us  —  mercifully  granting  us,  instead  thereof, 
such  temporal  allotments  as  he  foresaw  would  be 
sure  to  work  out  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory. 


134  PRA  YER. 


CHAPTER    YI. 

THE   HOUR   OF   PRAYER. 

The  Bible  has  no  more  tender  words  than 
those  which  invite  us  to  meet  God  in  prayer ; 
and  there  is,  in  our  heart  of  hearts,  a  voice 
ever  responding  to  those  words.  The  fact, 
therefore,  that  we  do  not  easily  learn  to  de- 
light in  prayer,  but  shrink  from  it  as  an  irk- 
some duty,  witnesses  to  the  bondage  of  the 
divine  nature  within  us.  Our  spirits  are  not 
free,  but  sold  under  sin.  That  to 
shrinking       wliich   our   hoHcst    impulse   moves   us 

fromprayer       -^     ^^^^^^A      Q^ino-     tO     the     laW    in    OUr 


proves. 


,,         V^.TXXX^ 


members  to  which  Ave  are  in  captivity. 
Our  higher  nature  fears  to  do  what  it  would, 
by  reason  of  the  lower  nature,  which  has  do- 
minion over  it.  This  explanation  of  our  re- 
luctance  to   pray,  when   the    duty  first   begins 


ITS  HOUR.  135 

to  be  urged  upon  us,  is  pictured  in  the  story 
of  Adam.  Before  his  disobedience  it  was  a 
joy  to  him  to  have  God  near,  but  he  drew 
back  from  that  pure  presence  as  soon  as  he 
had  sinned  ;  the  child's  yearning  in  him  came 
into  bondage  to  the  feeling  of  guilt.  God 
called  to  him  as  aforetime,  in  the  cool  of  the 
day,  saying,  "  Where  art  thou  ? "  but  he  was 
afraid,  and  hid  himself  among  the  trees  of 
the  garden. 

But  a  time  comes,  in  the  life  of  every  soul 
which  has  been  made  a  new  creature  in  Christ 
Jesus,  when  that  long-lost  pleasure  returns  to 
it.  The  words,  ^' Enter  into  thy  closet,"  are  not 
a  stern  command,  as  in  the  days  of  its  estrange- 
ment from  God,  but  the  sweetest  of  all  invi- 
tations.     That    soul    has    been    disin- 

Thefree  .  .  ,   •  . 

soul  loves  thralled,  it  is  no  longer  m  subjection 
''^^^^'  to  the  body  of  death,  but  has  been 
delivered  into  the  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God. 
Its  best  loved  spot  is  the  place  where  God 
daily  meets  it,  and  it  goes  to  that  meeting 
hungering  and  thirsting  for  divine  communion.* 
The   moments    set   apart   for   our    secret   de- 


136  PRAYER. 

votions    are    "  the    children's    hour "    in    God's 

family.     All  know  how  it  is  wont  to  be  in  the 

household    Avhere    love    reigns.      The 

Scene  from 

domestic        child    grows    weary    of    playing,    and 

life. 

steals  away  to  the  room  where  the 
father  is.  It  finds  the  door  ajar,  and  hears 
from  within  a  voice  of  welcome.  Entering 
freely  in,  it  climbs  upon  the  father's  knees, 
and  is  folded  in  his  arms.  There  it  hangs 
about  his  neck,  and  interchanges  with  him 
the  words  and  kisses  of  affection.  It  hears 
tender  replies  to  any  story  of  wants  or  troubles 
which  it  brings,  and  thus  its  heart  is  made  to 
overflow  with  comfort  and  gladness. 

Now,  it  is  just  in  this  way,  though  with 
unspeakably  more  joy,  that  the  children  of 
God  learn  to  turn  towards  him,  and  say, 
"  Abba,  Father."  The  new-born  spirit  is  forced 
to  be,  much  of  its  time,  in  that  temporal  world 
which  is  full  of  wearying  disturbances.  It  is 
driven  hither  and  thither  by  the  impulses  of 
the  fleshly  nature.  It  is  tossed  up  and  down 
upon  a  sea  of  temptations.  It  is  deceived, 
misled,    betrayed,    disappointed,   until    it    cries 


ITS  HOUR.  137 

out,   as   did   the    poor   Prodigal,  for  its  Father. 

And  that  Father,  ^^  who  seeth  in  secret,"  hears 

the    cry  of  the    distressed   child.     He 

How  it  is  in 

the  divine       is    near    it,    in    the     calm    retirement 

familj'.  .  .... 

where  it  seeks  refuge,  mvitnig  it, 
bewildered  and  helpless  as  it  is,  to  come  and 
rest  itself  by  communing  with  him.  There,  in 
the  closet,  is  its  haven  of  peaceful  waters. 
Have  the  archers  shot  at  it,  and  is  it  sorely 
wounded?  There  is  the  balm  of  Gilead  and 
the  Physician.  That  child  hungers  for  food 
which  the  world  cannot  give ;  and  there  it 
is,  the  bread  of  heaven,  of  which  if  a  man 
eat  he  shall  not  hunger.  It  is  the  immortal 
spirit  in  him  which  thirsts ;  and  there,  in  his 
closet,  he  finds  the  water  of  life,  which  is  a 
well  of  water,  in  those  who  drink  it,  spring- 
ing up  into  everlasting  life.  "  Come,  thou 
weary  child,  born  of  mine  own  Spirit,"  is  the 
invitation ;  "  come  and  refresh  thee  in  thy 
Father's  love.  Enter  into  thy  closet,  and  be 
alone  with  me  in  secret,  till  thou  shalt  learn 
how  much  readier  than  any  earthly  parent  I 
am    to    give     good    things    to    my    children.'* 


138  PRA  YER. 

After  this  manner  does  God  speak  of  the  hour 
of  prayer.  Thus  do  all  the  pure-hearted  yearn 
for  it,  and  welcome  its  coming.  It  is  the  cool 
arbor,  fragrant  and  beautiful,  out  of  which  God 
calls  to  us  daily,  inviting  us  to  turn  aside  from 
our  flinty  pathway,  that  we  may  be  rested  and 
refreshed  in  his  presence. 

This  meeting  with  the  Father  in  secret,  in 
order  to  fulfil  its  blessed  ministry,  must  be 
distinguished  by  three  things :  reading  the 
A  threefold  ^i^^®?  sclf-scrutiuy,  prayer.  These 
cord.  j^g^y  ]3Q    considered   as   three  separate 

duties  or  exercises,  but  in  our  Christian  life 
each  of  them  will  be  found  to  involve  the 
other  two.  No  one  can  examine  himself  in 
the  light  of  God,  and  not  be  constrained  to 
pray,  '^  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  and  renew 
a  right  spirit  within  me."  Whoever  reads  the 
Bible  understanding  what  he  reads,  finds  that 
his  own  thoughts,  brought  to  that  perfect  rule, 
are  in  the  mean  time  accusing,  or  else  excusing, 
one  another.  And  while  one  prays,  uttering 
the  weakness  and  longings  of  which  he  is  con- 
scious, he  finds  no  words  but  those  of  the  Bible 


ITS  HOUR.  139 

adequate  to  his  groaniiigs.  As  a  ship  escapes 
from  the  storm  into  its  quiet  harbor  by  means 
of  three  things,  —  ballast  to  keep  it  low  in  the 
water,  sails  to  catch  the  wind,  and  a  helm  to 
guide  its  course,  —  so  the  Christian  returns  into 
his  rest  in  the  closet  by  examining  himself,  read- 
ing the  Bible,  and  praying  to  his  Father.  These 
three  work  together.  It  is  the  Bible,  read  with 
a  docile  mind,  which  holds  him  to  his  course  ; 
it  is  beholding  himself  in  the  light  of  God  that 
keeps  him  low  in  his  own  thoughts ;  it  is  the 
life  of  the  Father,  breathed  forth  in  answer  to 
prayer,  which  bears  him  onward  into  his  rest. 
Each  of  these  exercises  so  involves  the  other 
two,  that  whoever  is  faithful  in  either  of  them 
will  be  faithful  in  them  all ;  and  if  any 

Reading  '  "^ 

the  Bible,       man   be    negligent    of    either   he   will 

self-exami- 
nation, and     slight  them  all.     As   soon  as  we  begin 

wT3^s^go        to  examine  ourselves,  we  look  for  the 

hand'"         perfect  standard   by  which  to  try  our 

character  and  life  ;  and  as  soon  as  we 

know   that   standard,    we    begin   to    cry,   "  God 

be   merciful   to   me    a  sinner."     If  you  tell  me 

that   you   never   pray,   then   I   know    that    you 


140  PRA  YER. 

are  not  an  earnest  student  of  the  Bible  and 
your  own  heart.  If  I  could  persuade  you  to 
attend  to  either  of  these  duties  as  you  should, 
I  might  be  sure  that  you  would  soon  be  faith- 
ful to  them  all. 

But  do  I  not  become  a  judge  of  my  fellow- 
disciples,  if  it  be  they  whom  I  would  persuade 
to  love  the  hour  of  prayer?  If  any  are  still 
waiting  for  arguments  to  draw  them  on  to 
this  blessed  meeting  with  God,  it  can  hardly 
be  that  they  are  his  children.  Can  the  new 
life  be  in  them,  and  never  leap  upward  after 
its  source  ?  It  should  startle  us,  and  cause 
us  to  look  sharply  into  the  foundations  of  our 
hope  in  Christ,  if  we  do  not  anticipate  with 
pleasure  the  hours  of  communion  with  God. 
Should  we  esteem  that  an  anchor  to  the  soul 
which  does  not  hold  us  lovingly  to  him  who 
is   the  Father  of  our  spirits?     Prayer 

The  Chris-  ^  *^ 

tian  life  not     \^   \}^q.   earlicst    cry    of   the   new-born 

possible 

without         child     of    God.       The     Christian    life 

prayer.  .  .   ,       .  i      r»      i        • 

begms  with  it,  and  nnds  in  it  ever- 
more the  light  of  life.  It  is  only  as  we  are 
estranged  from  God,  unconscious   of  his  divine 


ITS  HOUR.  141 

nature  dwelling  in  us,  that  meeting  with  him 
ceases  to  be  our  delight.  The  soul  which 
never  prays  is  dead.  It  begins  to  pray  as 
soon  as  it  begins  to  live.  This  is  shown  us 
in  the  case  of  St.  Paul.  The  proof  that  he 
had  been  renewed  by  the  divine  Spirit  was 
the  fact  that  he  prayed.  The  Lord  said  to 
his  servant  Ananias,  "  Arise,  and  go  into  the 
street  which  is  called  Straight,  and  inquire 
in  the  house  of  Judas  for  one  called  Saul 
of   Tarsus,    for    behold    he    prayeth.'^ 

St.  Paul.  ^  .  . 

Ananias  need  not  be  afraid  of  him 
any  longer.  He  had  been  born  into  God's 
family :  God  had  begotten  him,  through  the 
Spirit,  to  be  his  dear  child ;  and  the  voice 
of  that  sonship  in  him  was  a  prayer,  feebly 
lisped  in  the  dawn  of  the  truth  that  God  was 
his  Father,  and  to  be  spoken  more  articulately, 
and  with  a  richer  fullness,  as  he  grew  towards 
the  stature  of  a  man  in  Christ  Jesus.  His 
praying  showed  that  he  had  ceased  to  be  a 
persecutor  of  the  Christians,  that  he  now  was 
of  the  number  of  those  who  fled  from  him  to 
Damascus. 


142  PRA  YER. 

A  prayerless  Christian  is  an  impossibility: 
it  is  as  though  a  living  man  should  not  breathe, 
as  though  the  sun  should  still  be  the  sun  while 
giving  out  neither  heat  nor  light.  To  be  a 
Christian  is  to  partake  of  the  life  of  Christ. 
But  the  life  of  Christ  was  a  divine  sonship  in 
The  voice  humauitj.  By  virtue  of  this  sonship 
of  sonship.      j^g  ^^^g  -^  ^j^g  Father,   and  the  Father 

in  him.  This  tender  fellowship  and  indwelling 
was  on  the  one  side  a  constant  prayer,  and 
on  the  other  side  a  constant  hearing  of  that 
prayer.  Therefore,  if  any  pray  not  as  Christ 
did,  what  can  we  say  but  that  they  have  no 
part  in  him?  Can  you  be  God's  child  if  you 
have  no  impulse  to  call  on  him  as  your  Father  ? 
if,  when  you  hear  him  say,  "  Seek  my  face," 
you  do  not  answer,  "  Thy  face.  Lord,  will  I 
seek "  ?  If  you  have  been  born  of  the  free 
woman,  how  is  it  that  you  speak  not  the  lan- 
guage of  the  free  woman  ?  Should  not  the 
children  of  Canaan  use  the  speech  of  Canaan? 
Whoever  has  entered  into  the  life  of  God 
will  breathe  the  breath  of  that  life,  which  is 
prayer. 


ITS  HOUR.  143 

We  cannot  understand,  while  looking  only 
at  the  nature  of  the  Christian  life,  how  there 
should  ever  be  occasion  to  complain  of  the 
prayerlessness  of  Christians.  But  in  speaking 
to  this  point,  great  charity  becomes  us.  He 
that  thinketh  he  standeth,  may  be  the  first 
to  fall.  Even  where  the  spirit  is  willing,  the 
flesh  is  sometimes  weak.  There  are  Sloughs 
of  Despond,  no  less  than  Delectable  Mountains, 
in  the  life  of  prayer.  Our  infirmities  may 
choke  the  flame  of  devotion  even  after  that 
flame  has  burned  clearly.  The  earthly  nature 
in  us  struggles  against  the  heavenly. 
growwcary  Scasous  of  dcpressiou  will  come,  in 
0  prajer.       ^i-^fcj-^  ^^q    gj-^aH   find   it  hard  to  pray; 

nor  is  there  any  escape  for  us,  save  as  we  are 
clothed  upon  with  our  house  from  heaven. 
It  is  our  old  life  of  sin,  rising  up  in  us,  and 
striving  to  regain  its  lost  dominion,  which 
causes  us  to  grow  weary  of  prayer.  The  new 
life,  though  burning  low  and  almost  quenched, 
still  yearns,  with  such  strength  as  it  has,  for 
the  mercy-seat.  It  welcomes  the  divine  visits 
with'  the    whole    power    of   its    feeble    voice. 


144  PRAYER. 

The  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus,  finding  the  im- 
pulse to  pray  weakened  and  sorely  burdened 
in  him,  can  exclaim,  "  It  is  no  more  I,  but 
sin  that  dwelleth  in  me."  He,  renewed  after 
the  image  of  God,  still  prays;  and  the  meas- 
ure of  his  life  in  Christ  is  the  delight  he  finds 
in  prayer.  The  bruised  reed  is  not  broken. 
The  smothered  flame  burns  on.  So  far  as  he 
is  a  Christian,  conscious  of  the  divine  life 
dweUing   in   him,   he   loves   his   hours 

A  test  of  ,  •   1        /-^(      1  1  i_'    • 

the  new  01  commuuion  with  God:  he  antici- 
pates them,  he  welcomes  them,  he 
enters  with  joy  into  their  holy  duties.  That 
joy  may  be  faint  at  the  outset,  but  it  becomes 
full,  and  he  triumphs  over  his  infirmities,  as 
he  opens  his  soul  more  and  more.  He  finds 
a  blessed  refreshment  in  being  alone  with  God ; 
and  this  refreshment  is  great  according  to  the 
greatness  of  the  life   of  Christ  in  him. 

That  the  hour  of  prayer  is  ever  joyfully 
welcomed  by  the  true  children  of  God  was 
wonderfully  manifest  in  the  experience  of  our 
blessed  Lord.  He  seemed  almost  to  have  no 
other   hour;    prayed    so    much    in    spirit,   and 


ITS  HOUR.  145 

entered  so   fully  into  the  mind  of  the   Father 

as  to  carry  the  atmosphere  of  the  closet  about 

with  him  wherever  he  went.     Though 

A  constant 

joy  to  appearing   outwardly  to   men   in   tem- 

Christ. 

poral  form  and  vesture,  he  yet  m- 
habited  eternity ;  he  dwelt  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Father.  This  spiritual  indwelling  was  that 
which  most  filled  his  consciousness,  so  that 
even  in  the  midst  of  earthly  disturbances  he 
could  be  alone  with  God.  We  read  of  him 
as  absorbed  in  works  of  love,  yet,  even  while 
doing  those  works,  rejoicing  in  spirit,  and  say- 
ing, "  I  thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth ;  "  saying  these  As^ords  in  such  a  way 
as  to  show  that  the  eternal,  more  than  the 
He  dwelt  temporal,  was  present  to  his  thoughts 
in  eternity.  —  whoUy  and  diviucly  blessed  in  know- 
ing that  he  was  in  the  Father  and  the  Father 
in  him.  At  the  grave  of  Lazarus  also,  while 
affected  to  tears  by  the  grief  of  Mary  and 
Martha,  and  while  the  company  of  Jews  present 
were  angrily  watching  him,  this  whole  earthly 
scene  was  in  a  moment  shut  out  from  his  mind. 
He  was  alone  with  God,  in  the  sanctuary  of 
10 


146  PR  A  YER. 

the  soul ;  and  he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  not  to  a 
distant  power,  but  to  an  infolding  presence, 
saying,  '■^  Father,  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hast 
heard  me,  and  I  know  that  thou  hearest  me 
always."  He  spoke  these  words  in  the  secrecy 
of  his  divine  Sonship,  and  his  prayer  was  an- 
swered openly  in  the  coming  forth  of  his  friend 
from  the  grave.  In  like  manner,  when  he 
prayed  for  his  disciples  at  the  Last  Supper, 
all  his  words  came  out  of  eternity  —  words 
which  we  can  fathom  only  as  we  partake  of 
the  life  eternal  in  him.  Nothing  earthly  or 
temporal  entered  into  the  holy  of  holies  where 
he  prayed  the  Father  for  us.  He  was  con- 
scious of  being  in  the  high  sphere  and  region 
of  his  own  divinity,  a  beloved  Son  communing 
with  the  infinite  Father,  praying  for  those 
whom  he  loved  out  of  that  Father's  bosom. 
Yet   even   Christ,  though   always    praying  in 

spirit,  was  not  content  without  special 
lolcdth'e  hours,  in  which  he  went  away  by  him- 
praycn         sclf  to   moot  the   Father.      When   we 

read  of  him  that  "  he  was  alone  pray- 
ing,"  we   feel    that   something   habitual   in  his 


ITS  HOUR,  147 

life  is  indicated.  His  whole  career  on  earth 
seems  to  be  summed  up  in  that  striking  sen- 
tence which  says,  "  In  the  daytime  he  was 
teaching  in  the  temple,  and  at  night  he  went 
out  and  abode  in  the  mount  that  is  called 
the  Mount  of  Olives."  When  he  came  to  his 
disciples  in  the  fourth  watch  of  the  night, 
walking  to  their  drowning  ship  on  the  stormy 
sea,  he  had  just  left  the  dear  spot  where  he 
was  wont  to  be  refreshed  in  spirit.  "It  came 
to  pass  in  those  days,"  says  St.  Luke,  "  that 
he  went  out  into  a  mountain  to  pray,  and  con- 
tinued all  night  in  prayer  to  God."  After  his 
baptism,  having  been  sealed  to  his  solemn  of- 
fice by  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  upon  him,  he 
went  away  into  the  wilderness,  and  was  there 
j^jjjg  forty    days   alone   with   the   beasts   of 

^viiderness.  ^^iQ  earth.  No  doubt  that  solitude  was 
full  of  heavenly  sweetness  to  him.  He  Avas 
so  long  in  an  ecstasy  of  devotion  that  his 
mortal  powers  gave  out.  But  the  blessed 
hours  of  prayer  made  him  fresh  in  soul  to 
meet  the  tempter,  to  hold  fast  his  faith  that 
he    was    the    Son   of    God.      Communion   with 


148  PRA  YER. 

God  strengthened  him  to  undertake  for  lost 
men,  who,  as  he  foresaw,  would  lay  on  him 
the  burden  of  their  wrath  and  scorn,  and 
madly  nail  him  to  the  cross.  As  he  sought 
the  sweet  influence  of  prayer  in  beginning 
his  ministry,  so  was  it  a  refuge  to  him  when 
that  ministry  drew  to  its  tragic  close.  When 
he  saw  the  cross  ready,  waiting  for  him  to 
be  lifted  up  upon  it,  he  went  over  the  brook 
into  a  place  where  was  a  garden ;  and  there, 
curtained  by  the  night  and  the  shadows  of  the 
olive  trees,  he  girded  himself  for  the  sacri- 
Gethsem-  ^^^'  "  Bciug  in  an  agony,  he  prayed." 
^"*^-  And  then  he  came  to  his  disciples,  and 

found  them  sleeping,  whereupon  he  went  away 
again  and  prayed ;  and  then  again  the  third 
time,  in  the  very  same  words.  Thus  did  he 
overcome  the  wild  fear  which  had  seized  hold 
of  him.  His  darkness  was  turned  to  light, 
his  anguish  to  peace.  He  could  take  the 
cup,  which  might  not  pass  from  him,  with  a 
firm  hand ;  could  submit  himself,  in  a  solemn 
calm,  to  the  judgment  of  the  Father  against 
sin,  saying,  "  Thy  will,  not  mine,  be   done." 


ITS  HOUR,  149 

It  is  true  that  Christ,  who  found  so  much 
comfort  and  joy  in  the  hour  of  prayer,  felt 
none  of  those  inward  hinderances  which  often 
trouble  us.  He  was  the  holy  Son  of  God, 
without  sin  or  sinful  taint,  dwelling  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father.  The  sources  of  his  spir- 
itual life  were  always  open.  He  was  not 
averse  to  the  set  time  of  meeting  with  God, 
but  looked  forward  eagerly  to  it.  But  we 
are  naturally  strangers  to  God,  con- 
christs  scions  of  being  his  children  only  as 
pmyerex-      ^^  ^^®  hoY'^i  again,  the  new  life  feeble 

ceeded  -j^    ^g    ^^  ^^^  ^^^^^       ^^.^^  ^^A^  -^  folloWS 

ours. 

that  our  joy  in  prayer  cannot  be  the 
unmixed  and  infinite  joy  of  Christ.  Yet  it 
is  of  the  same  nature  as  his  —  a  real  entering 
into  the  life  of  God,  though  neither  so  pure 
nor  so  great.  The  fact  that  our  joy  is  less 
than  his,  shows  that  we  have  the  more  need  ; 
it  is  by  our  praying  that  we  shall  make  the 
flesh  weaker  and  the  spirit  stronger  in  us ; 
thus  rising  to  the  measure  of  his  stature  until 
our  joy  is  full.  Did  he  need  that  strengthen- 
ing which   comes   by   abiding    in   the   Father? 


150  PRA  YER. 

then   we    should    not    dare    trust    ourselves   a 

moment    without    it.      He   is   not    ashamed   to 

call    us   his   brethren ;    yet   how   little 

The  less  r  i  •  •  r  i  •  ^ 

our  joy,  the     ^^  ^^^  consciousuess  ot  sousliip  WO  have 
greater  our     -j^  ^g  j   rpj_^g^|.  consciousness  was  SO  vivid 

need. 

in  him  as  to  enable  him,  amid  the  great- 
est outward  confusion,  to  pray  and  rejoice  in 
spirit.  But  we,  even  in  the  stillness  of  the 
closet,  must  struggle  to  call  God  Father.  0, 
then,  if  we  would  have  such  brotherliness  as 
was  in  Christ,  and  call  God  our  Father  with 
his  full  and  rejoicing  voice,  so  as  to  find  our 
sweetest  solace  in  the  hour  of  prayer,  let  us 
be  continually  entering  into  our  closet,  and 
praying  to  Him  who  seeth  in  secret.  Thus 
alone  can  our  troubled  spirits  be  at  rest,  and 
the  divine  joy,  which  has  begun  to  warm  them, 
make  them  radiant  in  all  their  depths. 

But  we  have  other  witness  to  the  precious- 
ness  of  the  hour  of  prayer.  In  all  ages  the 
servants  of  God,  to  the  degree  that  they  have 
had  the  spirit  of  the  Son,  have  delighted  in 
the  holy  duties  of  the  closet.  Enoch  walked 
with   God :   and  this   life   of  prayer,   which   he 


ITS  HOUR.  151 

lived  in  a  wicked  age,  lifted  him  out  of  the 
common  lot  till  he  was  translated.  Living,  and 
believing,  he  never  died.  He  saw  not  the  face 
of  the  king  of  terrors.  He  laid  aside  the 
earthlv  house  without  a  pang  or  fear.  It 
caused  no  wrench  in  his  feelings,  but  sent  a 
thrill  of  pleasure  through  them,  to  be  called 
away  into  the  more  open  vision.  Abraham 
had  so  much  of  this  spirit,  and  communed  with 
God  so  often  in  secret  places,  that  he  was 
called  "the  friend  of  God."  Jacob  was  named 
,,  .  Israel  because   he  wrestled   in   prayer 

Various  in-  -r       J 

stances  of      m\  j^g    prevailed.     When  Moses   came 

love  for  the 

hour  of         down  out  of  the  mount,  his  face  shone 

praver. 

with  the  joy  of  meeting  God,  so  that 
the  people  were  afraid  to  look  on  him.  That 
shining,  so  dreadful  to  consciences  defiled  by 
idolatry,  was  the  glow  of  a  soul  overflowing  with 
life.  Companionship  with  God  had  made  the 
spirit  of  Moses  full  of  light ;  he  felt  the 
strength  and  peace  of  a  divine  indwelling. 
In  like  manner  were  all  the  prophets  of  Israel 
clothed  upon.  God  feasted  them  in  spirit 
while  they  prayed  before  him.     By  this  means 


152  PRA  YER. 

came  their  inspiration ;  this  was  the  live  coai, 
from  off  the  altar,  which  touched  their  lips. 
Take  out  of  the  record  of  those  holy  men  of 
old  the  accounts  we  have  of  their  secret 
prayers  and  longings  unto  God,  and  the  charm 
of  that  record  would  be  gone.  The  little 
remnant  of  outward  fact  would  be  dull  and 
stale.  We  can  no  more  think  of  those  men 
without  tracing  their  wondrous  works  and  words 
to  the  blessed  fountain  of  prayer,  than  we  can 
think  of  a  river  as  possible  without  a  source, 
or  of  the  light  of  day  as  shining  without  a 
sun. 

Whom  did  God  make  ruler  over  his  people, 
and  cause  the  kings  of  the  earth  to  fear?  It 
was  the  youngest  of  the  sons  of  Jesse,  one 
who  from  childhood  delighted  to  be  alone  with 
God.  This  divine  yearning  made  him  a  man 
after  God's  own  heart,  notwithstandincr 

David  re-  ° 

markabie       his  great  wickedncss.     Though  he  was 

for  this.  . 

full  of  evil  mipulses,  yet  he  loved  to 
feel  that  God  was  near  him.  His  sweet  Psalms, 
which  have  been  the  comfort  of  so  many  bur- 
dened  hearts,    are   but   the    voice   of   his   own 


ITS  HOUR.  153 

heart  praying  in  secret.  He  called  upon  the 
Lord  in  the  morning,  at  evening,  and  during 
the  night-watches.  The  bird  that  had  her  nest 
in  the  wall  of  the  house  of  prayer,  seemed  to 
him  to  be  blessed.  His  heart  panted  after  God. 
He  was  continually  saying,  *'  When  shall  I 
come,  and  appear  before  God  ?  "  '^  The  pray- 
ers of  David,  the  son  of  Jesse,  are  ended," 
we  read  in  the  seventy-second  Psalm.  That 
Psalm  ma}^  be  the  last  of  his  recorded  pray- 
ers, but  we  cannot  think  that  he  ceased  pray- 
ing while  on  earth,  or  that  he  now  fails  to  do 
so  in  heaven.  The  true  Christian  never  bids 
farewell  to  his  sweet  hour  of  prayer.  His 
closet,  which  is  so  dear  to  him  here  below, 
is  but  the  type  of  a  nearer  and  sweeter  com- 
munion on  high. 

Now  and  always,  prayer  is  the  voice  of  the 
child  longing  unto  its  Father ;  conscious  of  a 
divine  life  coming  into  it,  even  as  the  branch 
lives  b}^  abiding  in  the  vine.  There  is  noth- 
ing which  men  desire  more  than  the  conscious- 
ness of  power.  Hence  their  haste  to  be  rich, 
their  liking  to   be  in  places  of  authority,  their 


154  PRA  YER. 

eagerness  to  make  themselves  a  great  name. 
But  no  such  consciousness  of  power  comes 
by  these  means,  as  the  Christian  feels  while 
joying  in  God.  In  the  divine  might  which 
comes  to  him  through  prayer,  he  is  strong 
either  to  suffer  or  to  do.  Nothing  is  too  hard 
for  him.    He  can  subdue  his  evil  nature, 

Prayer 

gives  the        can   ovcrcomo   the  world;    he  beareth 

conscious- 
ness of  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  believe th 

all  things,  endureth  all  things.  This 
blessed  inworking  is  that  secret  of  the  Lord 
which  is  with  them  that  fear  him.  Great 
peace  have  they  with  whom  this  secret  abides. 
Here,  no  doubt,  is  laid  open  to  us  the  source 
of  what  is  greatest,  purest,  and  best  in  men. 
Out  of  this  dwelling  in  God  as  a  dear  child 
came  the  Confessions  of  Augustine,  the  Ser-. 
mons  of  Massillon,  the  Thoughts  of  Pascal,  the 
sustained  fervor  of  Whitefield.  The  singing 
men  and  women,  whose  hymns  make  melody 
in  our  churches  all  round  the  world,  have 
caught  their  inspiration  in  that  secret  fellow- 
ship with  God  into  which  prayer  is  the  ap- 
pointed  way.      We   understand   the    patriotism 


ITS  HOUR.  155 

of  Washington,  the  missionary  zeal  of  Brain- 
erd,  the  courage  of  Luther,  and  the  patience 
of  the  great  company  of  whom  the  world 
was  not  worthy,  by  knowing  that  they  loved 
the  hour  of  prayer.  They  went  often  into 
its  secret  places,  where  the  spirit  of  dear 
children  in  them  uttered  itself;  and  they  felt 
there  the  life  of  the  Father  raising  them  up 
to  newness  of  life,  clothing  their  spirits  with 
the  bright  garment  of  joy,  witnessing  that  they 
had  been  born  of  God. 

These  rejoicing  souls  have  never  felt  any 
hinderance  in  coming  to  God,  as  though  their 
entreaties  implied  a  doubt  of  his  readiness  to 
bless,  or  as  though  they  were  putting  a  private 
wish  in  the  way  of  changeless  decrees.  If 
God  were  a  law  of  nature,  a  cosmic  force,  or 
a  fate,  we  might  feel  an  impropriety  in  prayer. 
But  he  is  our  Father,  and  he  is  ready  to  do  for 
us  above  all  that  we  are  able  to  ask,  or  even 
to  think.  When  we  are  brought  into  perfect 
accord  with  him  by  the  exercise  of  prayer, 
we  grasp  the  truth  of  this  exceeding  readi- 
ness   in   him,  and   in   our   knowing   of  God   as 


156  PRAYER. 

the  un withholding  Father,  is  that  eternal  life 
which  meets  our  want,  so  that  we  need  no 
other  answer.  •'  Do  you,"  says  an 
prayer  its  eminent  writer,  ^' pray  as  a  child  of 
g^^gj!^""  God,  whose  first  and  nearest  relation- 
ship is  to  God,  your  Father?  whose 
most  deeply-felt  interests  are  bound  up  in  that 
relation,  in  what  lies  within  the  circle  of  that 
relation  contemplated  in  itself?  Do  you  pray 
as  one  to  whom  the  mind  of  God  towards 
you  and  your  mind  towards  him  are  the  most 
important  elements  of  existence,  and  whose 
other  interests  in  existence  are  outer  circles 
around  this  central  interest ;  so  that  you  see 
yourself,  and  your  family,  and  your  friends, 
and  your  country,  and  your  race,  with  the 
eyes,  because  with  the  heart  of  one  who  loves 
the  Lord  his  God  with  all  his  heart,  and  mind, 
and  soul,  and  strength  ?  Is  this,  at  least,  your 
ideal  for  yourself;  what  you  are  seeking  to 
realize,  —  to  realize  for  its  own  sake,  not  for 
the  sake  of  any  consequences  of  it  in  time 
or  eternity?  Then,  whatever  the  blessed  con- 
sequences of  its  realization  will  be,  they  shall 


ITS  HOUR.  157 

be   far   and   forever   inferior   and   secondary  to 
itself." 

Is  the  hour  of  prayer  distasteful  to  you? 
Do  you  not,  as  God's  child,  daily  experience 
your  weakness,  so  as  to  bo  driven  to  him  for 
help?  Consider  if  this  blessed  duty  has  not 
been  put  in  such  a  light  that  you  should 
never  again  neglect  it,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
esteem  it  the  one  pleasure  of  your 
liked  by        life,  with   which   you   allow   no   stress 

some. 

of  worldly  cares  to  interfere  ?  If  you 
find  in  your  closet  no  upliftings  of  soul,  no 
enlargement  of  your  joy  and  strength,  it  must 
be  for  the  reason  that  you  know  not  how  weak 
you  are.  Your  new  life  in  Christ  is  not  in  con- 
flict with  the  forces  of  evil,  with  which  no 
human  power  is  able  to  cope,  so  as  to  teach 
you  how  sorely  you  need  the  strength  of  God. 
It  is  when  you  find  this  battle  against 
sin  too  hard  for  you,  that  you  will  love 
to  take  refuge  in  prayer.  0  blessed 
danger,  which  makes  us  fly  to  our  Fortress, 
where  we  find  the  peace  that  passeth  under- 
standing !     If  you,  compassed  about  by  infirmi- 


How  to 

correct  this 
feelinff. 


158  PRA  YER, 

ties,  are  daily  striving  to  live  the  life  of  the 
holy  Son  of  God,  then  are  you  in  a  conflict 
to  which  your  human  power  is  sadly  unequal ; 
forced  to  say,  continually,  ^'  Father,  save  me 
from  this  hour,"  —  save  me  from  the  hour  and 
power  of  darkness  by  the  influence  of  the  hour 
of  prayer.  He  who  is  not  every  day  forced 
thus  to  cry  out  for  help  cannot  be  struggling 
to  put  down  all  his  evil  thoughts,  to  overcome 
the  world,  to  convert  sinners  to  God,  to  bear 
about  the  dying  and  the  life  of  Christ  in  his 
mortal  body.  The  new-born  sons  of  God  are 
all  the  time  finding  tJiemselves  weak,  power- 
less to  be  in  perfect  accord  with  the  mind 
and  wiU  of  the  Father.  Billows  go  over  their 
head,  and  they  are  ready  to  perish.  Not 
drifting  along  in  the  currents  of  worldliness, 
but  following  their  great  purpose  to  be  con- 
formed to    God,    thev   have    such    ex- 

Our  love  of  '  "^ 

prayer  the      perieucc    of  wcakucss   as   to   be    ever 

measure  of  ,  i  i  i  -ni      i  i 

our  faith        crymg,  ''  Abba,  Father,  keep   us,  calm 
us,  lead   us,  give   us  the  victory  over 
foes    too    mighty    for    our    strength?"     In   pro- 
portion   to    the    sharpness   of    this    conflict    is 


ITS  HOUR.  159 

the  love  of  the  Christian  for  his  devotional 
hours.  He  can  never  cease  to  love,  and  long 
for,  the  sweet  time  in  which  his  prayer  for 
help  is  answered.  It  is  in  his  closet,  visited 
with  the  outgoings  of  the  morning  and  even- 
ing, that  he  is  conscious  of  deliverance.  There 
it  is  that  peace,  and  joy,  and  glorious  strength 
come  into  his  soul.  He  turns  to  the  hour  of 
prayer  as  imprisoned  plants  turn  to  the  sun. 
It  is  not  irksome  to  him,  but  full  of  bene- 
dictions. The  bitterest  trial  of  his  life  would 
be,  not  to  be  allowed  to  pray ;  for  it  is  in 
praying  that  he  meets  the  God  of  all  com- 
fort, and  receives  a  thousandfold  for  his  daily 
conflicts  and  troubles. 


Date  Due 

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